Peterborough Phantoms are off the mark in the National League at the seventh attempt after a shutout win in Romford

After back-to-back defeats against Telford made it six straight defeats for the city side, they won 3-0 at Raiders last night (October 31) to finally get off the mark.

Brad Bowering ended a good week for himself, following up his GB U20’s call up with a goal, as he scored on the wraparound to put the Phantoms ahead in Romford.

Jacob Ranson fired in a power play effort for the Raiders, only to see it washed out for goaltender interference. Phantoms held firm and got to the end of the first with their one goal lead intact.

Ales Padelek doubled the Phantoms’ advantage with a close range backhand effort after Callum Buglass’ initial shot was saved by Ethan James.

The Phantoms’ defence remained resolute and only allowed four shots on Jordan Marr’s goal in the second period, allowing them to go into the second intermission in full control.

The Raiders took the risk and pulled their goalie with over five minutes to play and began to pile the pressure on the Phantoms defence as the game entered the closing stages.

But Padelek put the icing on the cake for the Phantoms in the closing stages with an empty net goal to seal the deal.

And Jordan Marr capped a good night for him and his defence with a couple of late stops to ensure a hard earned shutout for Slava Koulikov’s side.

Phantoms had been beaten 5-2 in Telford last Wednesday and the Tigers eased to a 5-3 win at Planet Ice on Saturday.

Jack Watkins put the Tigers ahead with just over four minutes played and the Tigers went into the first intermission with a 2-0 lead after Andy McKinney tapped home a second for the visitors.

Veteran forward Jason Silverthorn extended their advantage to three in the opening minutes of the second stanza, by scoring an unassisted, short handed goal.

Morgan Clarke-Pizzo got the Phantoms up and running just shy of the mid-way point, after finding space in the offensive zone to fire a low shot past Brad Day at the end of a Tigers powerplay.

And the Phantoms threatened to make a game of it when Padelek fired home a great pass by Glenn Billing to cut the deficit back down to one.

But that hope was relatively short lived, as Joe Aston applied the finishing touch to Telford’s fourth goal of the evening.

Phantoms started the final period brightly and once again reduced the arrears back down to one, with Duncan Speirs ripping an effort home after good work by new recruit, Nathan Salem.

Corey Goodison applied the killer blow to the Phantoms with just over 15 minutes to play, by slamming in a power play goal from the blue line.