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Phantoms 2, Guildford Flames 6 - Phantoms shot down in Flames yet again
Ice hockey action from Phantoms v Guildford Flames: Greg Randall and Damian King can't stop the puck from hitting the back of the net. Photo: Alan Storer/Peterborough ET
English Premier League report: GUILDFORD Flames lived up to their billing as English Premier League title favourites at the Peterborough Arena last night.
A patched-up Phantoms side may have just about held their own for the first two periods but when push came to shove the Flames simply switched up a gear to motor away with the points.
But despite being without skipper Jeff Glowa and Luke Ferrara it was Phantoms who took the game to their illustrious opponents in the opening stages.
On an early powerplay, Joe Graham had his goal-bound shot blocked just over the bar and minutes later Tom Carlon nipped in to dispossess Jez Lundin.
But by the time Carlon was bearing down on Flames’ netminder Mark Lee and was about to pull the trigger, Lundin had recovered his position to block the shot.
It took rather longer for Flames hard-case Andrew Sharp to recover from the indignity of being upended by 17 year-old Luke Barber, however. Barber dumped Sharp on his backside with a cracking hit to lift the home crowd.
But before long the Peterborough Arena fell silent when the visitors delivered the opening blow when Rick Plant netted after being put through by Milos Melicherik.
Another powerplay saw Chris Allen and Richard Bentham fire in dangerous shots but Lee proved more than a match to anything being thrown at him as Flames coasted to the end of the first period with their slender lead intact.
Richard Bentham pulled a decent save from Lee early in the middle act while at the other end Phantoms netminder Damien King was called into action too.
King boasts a decent record down the years against the Flames and he pulled off a smart double save when David Savage tried to bundle home the rebound from David Longstaff’s shot.
And having survived the scare Joe Graham evened things up with a smart finish from Ondrej Lauko’s pass as Phantoms made the most of a delayed penalty call in the 33rd minute.
Unfortunately Phantoms couldn’t hold out to the buzzer and with just over 30 seconds of the period to play Branislav Kvetan struck from close in to restore Flames’ advantage. The third period was less than five minutes old when the visitors took that advantage and turned it into a winning lead.
Nathan Rempel always likes a goal against his former club and the Canadian sniper made it 3-1 after swooping onto a Longstaff pass and finishing into the bottom corner.
And less than a minute later it was 4-1 when new signing Jozef Kohut netted to leave Phantoms looking down the throat of their first home defeat in four games. Phantoms third period collapse continued when Stuart Potts made it 5-1 and while Carlon did manage to cut the arrears it was only delaying the inevitable.
With the half-way point of the final act approaching Matt Towe brought the curtain down on Phantoms’ hopes. And at 6-2 King’s night came to an end when the shell-shocked netminder was replaced by teenage understudy Dan Lane.
It was something of a baptism of fire for Lane against a rampant Guildford attack but the youngster did well to keep the visitors from adding to their score as the Flames settled for an all too comfortable margin of victory.
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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