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Phantoms 3, Swindon 2 - Late goalby Ziedins tames the Wildcats
Phantoms win 10-4 on aggregate AFTER all the massive occasions at the Peterborough Arena over the past few weeks, Phantoms last home game of the season proved to be something of a damp squib.
Phantoms win 10-4 on aggregate
AFTER all the massive occasions at the Peterborough Arena over the past few weeks, Phantoms last home game of the season proved to be something of a damp squib.There was no repeat of the fireworks seen in the historic EPL Cup win against Guildford Flames.
Nor was there any of the buccaneering hockey which saw Telford Tigers dismantled last weekend ahead of the English Premier League championship trophy presentation.
Because last night the priorities were entirely different.
Having effectively booked their place in the last four of the EPL play-offs with a 7-2 win in Wiltshire on Saturday, the second leg was about staying healthy and avoiding any silly bans.
With a hockey Grand Slam of all three trophies up for grabs, Colin Patterson's double winners just did enough to get the job done and then went home.
And at least the fans went home happy too as their team won the game thanks to goals for Joe Miller, Nathan Rempel and Maris Ziedins.
Patterson said: "This was always going to be a tough game to get up for as we knew we had done what we had to do at their place.
"It was important we didn't get anyone injured as we are all keyed up for the finals weekend in Coventry where we know bigger challenges await us. We just did what we had to do."
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"Swindon made it hard for us as we knew they would but we were very professional about it and made sure we didn't shoot ourselves in the foot."
Not that the Wildcats didn't do their best to provoke a reaction from their high-flying hosts.
Both Jon Sitko and Nicky Watt tried hard to start a ruck and while Watt did feel the force of a decent right hand from James Morgan in the second period, all in all Phantoms did well not to take the bait.
At finals weekend in Coventry there will be far bigger fish to fry than sorry Swindon.
Not that they started like a side which has been in freefall since the turn of the year. Phantoms netminder Stephen Wall had to be at his very best to deny Josef Kohut and Ciaran Long as Wildcats outgunned their hosts by 17 shots to 10 in the opening period.Clearly mindful of this, the home side came out far stronger in the middle act and it was Joe Miller who opened the scoring early on with his sixth of the weekend from just inside the blue line.
Nathan Rempel then doubled the lead after a typical burst down the left flank before cutting inside and nicking his shot past Wildcats netminder Ladislav Kudrna with five minutes of the period remaining.
It was fair reward for the league champions who needed plenty of self control not to react to the provocation coming their way.
At the start of the final period however Swindon seemed to decide to actually play hockey and were rewarded when Ryan Aldridge and Aaron Nell both lit the lamp.
But with the game seemingly heading for a draw Ziedins then popped up at the exactly the right time to bang home the winner from Craig Peacock's pass.
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Weather for Peterborough
Sunday 12 February 2012
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