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Ice hockey preview: Home comforts are a must for Phantoms
Ice hockey action from Phantoms v Guildford Phantoms: Tom Carlon. Photo: Alan Storer/Peterborough ET
Peterborough Phantoms’ home form will be the key to their chances of play-off success.
The city side saw their three-game home winning streak ended by Guildford Flames on Wednesday night and their chances of making up ground in the English Premier League table are fast running out.
Phantoms are currently in ninth place and must climb one more position by overhauling Bracknell Bees or Swindon Wildcats to qualify for the play-offs.
It will be tough for Phantoms to close that two-point gap in Guildford tonight against the league leaders, but tomorrow’s clash with Telford Tigers at the Peterborough Arena is a different story.
Phantoms have already beaten the Shropshire side four times out of five and coach Chris Allen knows his team need to end the six-game series with another win to keep their hopes alive.
He said: “We were disappointed to lose so badly in the end to Guildford as for the first two periods I thought we dominated before it all went wrong in the third period.
“We had been on a good run at home and the defeat hurt but we have to get back to winning ways on our own ice. That is going to be absolutely crucial to us making the play-offs.
“The light is closing in on us now and we are running out of games. We have eight left at home and I think if we can win six or seven of those games we should be able to make it.
“So of course Sunday is going to be huge for us as we really cannot afford to let those points slip.
“Saturday will be really tough for us on the big ice pad at Guildford but we certainly will not go there expecting to get beat.”
However, with joint top scorer Luke Ferrara and skipper Jeff Glowa both certain to miss the weekend games, Phantoms resources will one again be stretched to the limit.
“We seem to have spent most of the season short-handed and we just have to get on with it,” added Allen. “Hopefully they could be back involved next weekend but we won’t know anything until they have seen doctors next week.
“So hopefully some of the younger guys can continue to step up. Nathan Pollard and Luke Barber have both been excellent and hopefully they can keep that going.
“I think they both played eight or 10 shifts against Guildford on Wednesday and we will need a similar effort from them this weekend.
“But we will all have to pull together and put in maximum effort to deliver the results that we need to stay in the hunt.”
Have your say on Phantoms’ performance and season - send your comments to @jimmywezz on Twitter
SATURDAY
Opponents: Guildford Flames
Venue: Spectrum (face-off 6pm).
Coach: Paul Dixon.
Form: After beating Phantoms without breaking sweat on Wednesday night the Flames will be confident in their own building.
Dixon’s men look to be getting back to their best form and having won their last three games and scored an average of five goals a game.
Dangerman: Phantoms have now played the Flames three times this season and Nathan Rempel has scored on each occasion.
SUNDAY
Opponents: Telford Tigers
Venue: Peterborough Arena (face-off 5.30pm).
Coach: Tom Watkins.
Form: Despite being 12 points adrift at the bottom of the league the Tigers have picked up a couple of decent results lately with wins against Guildford and the Sheffield Steeldogs.
However, Phantoms are 4-1 up in the series and have beaten the Tigers twice in the last three weeks.
Dangerman: Joe Henry and Scott McKenzie are the Tigers leading scorers this season with 17 and 18 respectively.
McKenzie is probably the greatest threat as he likes playing Phantoms and has three goals in the last two meetings between the sides.
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Weather for Peterborough
Saturday 26 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 11 C to 23 C
Wind Speed: 20 mph
Wind direction: East
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 10 C to 23 C
Wind Speed: 15 mph
Wind direction: East
