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Ice hockey preview: Phantoms have to stop Bees buzzing
Ice hockey action from Phantoms v Bracknell Bees: Joe Graham gets stuck in. Photo: Peterborough ET
PHANTOMS coach Chris Allen has issued a call to arms ahead of their biggest game of the season so far.
Allen leads his team into action against the Bracknell Bees at the Peterborough Arena on Sunday (face-off 5.30pm) knowing a win could see them leapfrog the Bees into the last English Premier League Play-off spot.
It will be a tall order against a classy Bracknell side, but if the Bretton faithful get behind his team in numbers Allen is confident of getting the right result.
He said: “All our games are huge from now until the end of the season but this game on Sunday is probably our biggest yet. Of course we need results to go our way on Saturday night, but there is a good chance that we will be able to move past Bracknell into eighth place if we beat them on Sunday.
“But we will need the crowd to play their part in that. They create a lot of energy and we can feed off that as we have done over the last few home games.
“As I have said before, we need to win our home games as they are vital to our hopes. It is no good moving into eighth place and then slipping back so our home games are key.
“Including Bracknell we have 10 games left at the Peterborough Arena and if we want to make the play-offs we will need to win a good percentage of them.”
Phantoms currently have 28 points but Allen believes they will need 40 plus to make the end of season shoot-out.
“Last season I think the team that finished eighth and made the play-offs ended with 32 points but this time it will be a lot more than that.” Allen added. “The whole league is so much more competitive that I think we will need well over 40 points to make sure of getting there.
“So we cannot just have the attitude that if we get into eighth place we can then relax. As far as I am concerned we need to be going at it full bore between now and the end of the season.
“We need to make teams fear coming to play at our place and if we can pick up a few points on the road too then we will have a great chance.
“I think the team is in good shape to do it. Training is going really well and there is a completely positive feeling in the dressing room.
“We just need to keep building that feeling and then I am sure good things will happen for us.”
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Weather for Peterborough
Saturday 26 May 2012
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Temperature: 11 C to 23 C
Wind Speed: 20 mph
Wind direction: East
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Temperature: 10 C to 23 C
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