Peterborough Phantoms ice hockey club coach proud of his players and the club's fans

​The city side took a slender 1-0 lead into the second leg of their semi-final against a crack MK Lightning team at Planet Ice and, after a few wobbles, they booked a final slot against Leeds Knights with a 4-3 second-leg win.

Phantoms were twice behind on the night, but goals in the final minutes from defenceman Scott Robson, who doesn’t score many, and Duncan Speirs sent a packed home crowd into raptures.

Koulikov told the Phantoms’ Youtube channel: “To beat a team as good and as dangerous as MK in both legs was a fantastic achievement by the players.

"They defended superbly in the first leg and then showed a lot of maturity in the second leg to make sure they stayed in the game for the final period, and then to go on and win it.

"It was a real team effort. I don’t want to single any players out because everyone knows who scored the goals and who made the big saves. The players did the job together.

"The way they kept responding when little things went wrong on the night was impressive. We tried to treat the game as a normal game. A 1-0 lead was nothing really. We had to play how we normally play and they pulled it off.

"And our fans were amazing. The atmosphere was electric from the minute we came out for the warm-up until those final three minutes or so after we’d taken the lead again.

"The fans have been spoilt by the number of finals these guys keep reaching, but they deserve the success as much as the players.

"These nights have to be savoured and enjoyed. We are definitely an over-achieving club, but to beat the likes of MK and Leeds Knights like we have recently has shown how good we are.”

Leeds Knights are the National League leaders and title favourites. They easily beat Sheffield Steeldogs 10-5 on aggregate in their semi-final. The final will be played over two legs on dates to be announced.

Phantoms host Hull on Friday (7.30pm) and then travel to Raiders on Sunday in National League matches.