Peterborough Phantoms on cloud nine after beating the league leaders

​The city side were humbled in Swindon on Saturday, leaving Wiltshire with their tails between their legs as the Wildcats dished out a 9-2 mauling.

It was hardly the ideal result with the league leaders and title favourites Leeds Knights due at Planet Ice the following day.

But Phantoms have been pretty much invincible at home and they stretched their winning streak in front of their own fans to nine games with a thrilling 6-4 success.

Phantoms have now beaten the top two in the last fortnight – they secured a rare away win at second-placed MK Lightning – as they put their own table-topping credentials on display.

Phantoms are back at Planet Ice on Saturday (7pm face-off) against Romford Raiders before Leeds get a chance of quick revenge in Yorkshire on Sunday (5.15).

Top scorer Cam Hough was the hat-trick hero against the Knights, although netminder Hayden Lavigne took the official man-of-the-match honours.

Hough opened the scoring in the 15th minute with Phantoms taking advantage of a five-on-three powerplay. There was no further scoring in the first period.

The second session was also competitive and a flurry of goals arrived as Fin Braden levelled for the visitors and Hough and Nathan Salem scored in quick succession to establish a 3-1 Phantoms lead at two-thirds time.

The final period was a dramatic end-to-end encounter with Knights constantly closing the gap to one goal before Phantoms extended it again.

Leeds ace Kieran Brown scored the first of his hat-trick goals on 47.06, but Luke Ferrara’s penalty shot following an offence against Hough soon made it 4-2.

Brown scored either side of Hough’s hat-trick strike to make it 5-4 with just over four minutes to go and there were just 17 seconds remaining when Janne Laakkonen ensured Phantoms could breathe easily by firing into an empty net.

Ferrara claimed a hat-trick of assists with Tom Norton (2), Laakkonen, Brad Bowering, Scott Robson and Jarvis Hunt also creating goals.

The less said about the trip to Swindon the better as Phantoms went from 4-2 down at the end of period one to 9-2 down in the opening minute of the final period before the home side eased off.

Ferrara and Austin Mitchell-King scored for Phantoms. Back-up netminder Luke Clark excelled saving 11 of the 13 shots he faced during some rare ice time.

GB CALL UP

Phantoms forward Billy Thorpe will compete for Great Britain in the World Under 20 Championships in Zagreb, Croatia early in the new year.