Great fightback, but a long Peterborough Phantoms' winning run is over

​The city side had won their previous nine National League home games before Romford Raiders left town with a 5-4 success on Saturday night.

Phantoms found themselves 5-0 down after 26 minutes before reducing the arrears to 5-3 by the end of the second period.

Unfortunately Slava Koulikov’s men couldn’t break through stubborn opponents again until the final minute of the game so lost for the first time at Planet Ice since September 15 when Sheffield Steeldogs beat them 5-3.

The third-placed Steeldogs make a return trip on Sunday (5.30pm face-off) in the only game for Phantoms this weekend. The city skaters were also beaten 3-1 at title challengers Leeds Knights last Sunday to slip to sixth in the standings after their first pointless weekend of the season.

Milton Keynes Lightning are the new leaders after a big Saturday night win over Leeds.

v RAIDERS Phantoms were caught cold by Raiders who scored three times in the opening 10 minutes.

And after Brad Bowering hit the crossbar for Phantoms, the visitors struck again in the final minute of the first period.

Jarvis Hunt came close to getting Phantoms on the scoreboard early in the second period, but was denied by a brilliant save and the game looked over a couple of minutes later when Raiders claimed a fifth goal.

Crucially Phantoms responded within 14 seconds when leading scorer Cam Hough netted from close range following an almighty scramble in front of the Raiders’ net.

The home team’s second line then started to have an impact as Nathan Selem set up Hunt to score and Duncan Speirs struck to set up a thrilling final period.

But Phantoms were met with strong resistance in the final 20 minutes and only after pulling netminder Hayden Lavigne in favour of an extra skater did Hunt claim his second goal of the night with 19 seconds to go.

v LEEDS

The following night Leeds were seeking revenge for defeat at Planet Ice on the previous weekend and they eased into a 2-0 lead by the end of the first period.

That became 3-0 in the middle stanza and Phantoms were shut out by man-of-the-match goaltender Sam Gospel before Speirs struck following good work from Luke Ferrara and Austin Mitchell-King with under two minutes remaining.

Billy Thorpe was named Phantoms man-of-the-match. Speirs had taken the award the previous night.

STAT ATTACK

Hough is the top goalscorer in the National League with 22. He has a combined points tally of 34 (12 assists), the 15th best record.