Peterborough Phantoms head into the National League play-offs in great form

And the city side couldn’t be starting the defence of their title in better spirits. They’ve won five of their last six matches after finishing the regular season in fifth place following wins at champions Leeds Knights and then against Berkshire Bees at Planet Ice, when the the teams scored 19 goals between them, last weekend.

Phantoms start their play-off campaign at fourth-place finishers Hull Seahawks – they finished a point ahead of Phantoms – on Saturday before a return game between the sides 24 hours later (both 5.30pm face-offs).

Slava Koulikov’s men then play eighth-place finishers Telford Tigers away on Saturday, April 5 (7pm) and at home on Sunday April 6 (5.0pm) before two games against Leeds at home on Saturday, April 12 (7.30pm) and away on Sunday, April 13 (5.15pm). The top two will progress to Play-Off Finals Weekend at Coventry on April 19/20. The other qualifying group contains MK Lightning, Swindon Wildcats, Sheffield Steelers and Romford Raiders.

Final standings

Leeds 54 41 13 84

MK L 54 39 15 83

Swindon 54 35 19 77

Hull 54 20 24 66

PHANTOMS 54 32 22 65

Sheffield 54 27 27 56

Romford 54 23 31 51

Telford 54 22 32 48

Solway 54 20 34 44

Bees 54 15 39 36

Bristol 54 13 41 34

Phantoms managed to spoil the title-winning party of Leeds Knights by winning 2-1 at the home of the team they beat on penalty shots in the play-off final last season.

Mac Howlett opened the scoring for the champions in the eighth minute, but Cam Hough brought Phantoms level less than two minutes later after good work from Luke Ferrara and Callum Buglass.

Young Louie Kynaston won the game for Phantoms midway through the second period with assists coming from Nick Martin and Brad Bowering as netminder Hayden Lavigne enjoyed a fine game to earn the team’s man-of-the-match award.

Leeds at one point delivered 33 shots on Lavigne’s goal without a single reply at the other end, but there was no getting past the Canadian shot-stopper.

It was a much different game at Planet Ice the following day as Phantoms saw off the Bees 12-7 in a spectacular shootout in front of 918 fans.

The visitors led 4-3 after the first period before Phantoms took control. It was 9-6 to the home side at the end of the middle session and they won the final period 3-1 to deliver a convincing five-goal margin of victory.

Nathan Salem bagged a hat-trick for Phantoms with Ferrara (2), Duncan Speirs (2), Hough (2), Joe Gretton, Martin and Jarvis Hunt also taking advantage of a wide-open game.