Lukas at the double as Peterborough Phantoms claim another impressive win

Fresh from back-to-back wins over National League leaders Leeds Knights and a superb League Cup semi-final first leg win at fellow high-fliers MK Lightning, the city side ventured north on Saturday to tackle Sheffield Steeldogs. The same Sheffield team that had over powered Phantoms 8-4 at Planet Ice earlier this month.

If Phantoms did make mistakes that night, they clearly learned them from as they turned a 1-0 first period deficit into a 4-1 lead early in the final stanza before settling for a 4-2 win. It was a result that enabled them to catch Leeds in the standings, albeit temporarily as the Knights have three games in hand.

Both are now chasing MK who blasted their way past Bristol Pitbulls last night.

Lukas Sladkovsky was the two-goal man-of-the-match for Phantoms with strikes from Glenn Billing and Martins Susters completing the scoring. Ales Padalek claimed two assists to notch his 50th point of another fabulous season.

But it was Sheffield who struck first on the powerplay midway through the first period, a 20-minute spell in which Phantoms’ netminder Jordan Marr again showed his quality.

Padelek and Susters assisted on Billing’s leveller on 25.14 and with 40 seconds of the middle period to go, Sladkovsky charged through the home defence to fire into the roof of the net for a 2-1 lead for the visitors.

Susters made it 3-1 with help from Billing and Padelek before Sladkovsky netted after good work from Austin Mitchell-King and Ralfs Circenis.

A goal two minutes from time proved no more than a consolation for Sheffield.

Phantoms host lowly Bees in a National League fixture at Planet Ice on Sunday (5.30pm face-off).