Phantoms 6, Guildford 3 - Further glory for the fantastic Phantoms
Peterborough win 9-7 on aggregate. IT doesn't get better than this.
Peterborough win 9-7 on aggregate.
IT doesn't get better than this.Having been crowned English Premier League champions on Saturday, Phantoms produced one of the best performances ever witnessed at the Peterborough Arena to lift the EPL Cup last night.
And what made this historic victory all the more memorable for the heaving crowd, who savoured every second of a pulverising total hockey display, was that it came against a gobby old Guildford.
For the past week the dethroned league champions had been whinging to all and sundry that they were the best team in the land having beaten Colin Patterson's band of heroes on five previous occasions this season.
And yet when it really mattered, when the stakes were so high, they came up way short as Phantoms took great delight in ramming those taunts back down their throats.
"We so badly wanted to beat them after all the things that have been said about us not being the best in the league, well I think we shut them up about that one, didn't we," said two goal hero 'Jumping' Joe Miller.
"We knew we could match them in every area and we did that and more. It has to be one of the best performances I have ever been lucky enough to have been involved in."
Ice hockey special report:
Peterborough Phantoms: 2009 treble winners
James Westgate relives the Phantoms' all-conquering 2009 season.
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"It was all pretty emotional for me as my mum Sue died last year so I want to dedicate my goals to her and to my dad Dave who was here rooting us on.
"But I was only a small part of it. Every single player worked themselves into the ground for that result.
"Don't get me wrong, Guildford are a great side, it's just that when we really needed to we proved we were that bit better. What a game, what a performance, what a feeling, bring on the play-offs!"
Indeed if Phantoms play like this then there is every chance that another trophy could soon be on its way to crown what has been a truly remarkable season.
From the very first buzzer the home side set about their task with the kind of intensity, power and precision which has set them apart from the rest for the past six months.
After just three minutes it was Miller who pounced on Brent Gough's pass to open the scoring before driving to the net from Shaun Yardley's faceoff to add his second a minute later.
It was the perfect start and it soon got even better as Phantoms went straight for the jugular.
With check after crushing check raining down, Guildford were being given no time to gather their senses and when Lewis Buckman finished off Gough's pass at the back post on the powerplay the writing was already on the wall.
With Dwayne Newman, James Hutchinson and James Morgan denying any time or space at the other end it was against the run of play that Ollie Bronniman poked home former Phantom Taras Foremsky's pass on 16 minutes after a rare breakaway.
It proved to be just a blip in the one-way traffic however and before the end of the first period, Nathan Rempel restored the three-goal cushion after cleverly using Buckman's far post surge as a decoy before slotting his first of the night past Joe Watkins at the near post.
After the re-start Foremsky pulled one back for Flames who needed a heavy slice of luck to beat Stephen Wall after the big geordie had saved the Canadian's initial shot only to see the puck take a cruel bounce of his pads into the back of his net.But the chances kept coming for the home side and when Man-of-the-Match Maris Ziedins unloaded a blistering drive from 10 yards out, any damage caused was quickly undone.
However another fortunate goal, this time from Neil Liddiard, ensured Guildford still had something to play going into the final act - even if they scarcely deserved it.
Flames now needed just one more goal to level the tie but with men like Dwayne Newman around that was never going to be easy.
And it was the big Canadian who effectively made the match winning sixth goal.
Throwing his huge frame infront of Rob Lamey's ferocious shot, the puck fell to Morgan who fed Rempel with a smart pass and the league's top scorer made no mistake when cutting across Watkins to fire home and send the crowd into raptures of double delight.
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Friday 19 March 2010
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