Another tough NIHL National weekend awaits your Wendy’s Peterborough Phantoms as they face a trip to MK, before the Swindon Wildcats pay us a visit on Sunday night.
ABOUT THE OPPOSITION
The Milton Keynes Lightning have had a busy summer since they defeated the Phantoms in last season’s Final Four Grand Finale, with five notable departures from their line up - two of those will feature against them for the Phantoms - Dillon Lawrence and Corey McEwen.
But they’ve had a busy summer of incomings, with Josh Kelly, Elliot Lewis, Jarvis Hunt, Austin Osborn and Dawson Osborn joining the Brit pack. MKL are also running a five import system, with Dominik Gabaj, Illia Korenchuk and Janne Jokinen joining in the summer. They sit a place below Phantoms in the table, with six points from their opening four games.
The Swindon Wildcats are the early league leaders, with four regulation wins from four under their belt prior to this weekend.
They lost the services of Jake Bricknell (Bristol) and Balint Pakozdi (Leeds) over the summer, but more than replaced them with Tyler Watkins, Logan vande Meerakker and Owen Griffiths all signing, along with Great Britain legend, Ben O’Connor.
TEAM NEWS
Phantoms are hoping to name a similar roster to the one which claimed four points last weekend. Their two-way players aren’t likely to feature, whilst Nathan Salem is a long term absentee.
The Milton Keynes Lightning will be without one of their five imports. Of Jordan Spadafore, Patrik Forsberg, Dominik Gabaj, Janne Jokinen and Illia Korenchuk, one will miss out to comply with league rules.
Jordan Hedley didn’t receive a ban after his ejection last weekend and could start, whilst Callum Field, Austin Osborn and Lewis Conroy all didn’t feature for MK last Sunday.
The Swindon Wildcats are expected to be at full strength for the trip to Peterborough. Eddie Bebris is likely to feature against his old side as a forward, having moved back up front from defence this season.
Tyler Perre is a longer term absentee having recently had surgery - everyone at the Phantoms would like to wish Tyler all the best with his recovery.
ONE TO WATCH
MKL’s imports lead the way so far for their team scoring, but are closely followed by Jordan Cownie. The former Phantom is a regular on the scoresheet for the Lightning and will be one to watch once again on Saturday night.
Wildcats - Logan vande Meerakker has enjoyed a strong start to his time in Swindon, with three goals and three assists to his name in four games. The Canadian forward will be looking to continue his scoring form this weekend.
COACHES CORNER
“I think we need to follow up on the positives from last weekend where we were good in some areas and not so in others. We know we’re playing 2 teams that will fully expect to be lifting silverware at some point this year so we have to be ready!” - Ashley Tait
TICKET NEWS
Tickets are on sale via the Phantoms website for Sunday’s home game (5:30pm) against the Wildcats. Alternatively, fans can pay on the door upon arrival at Planet Ice Peterborough - doors open at 4:30pm.
You can purchase your tickets HERE!
JERSEYS
Phantoms will wear their red jerseys in Milton Keynes and their white jerseys at home against Telford.
You can shop all three of Phantoms’ new jerseys HERE!