Peterborough Phantoms set off on the play-off trail after finishing their regular season with two defeats

Phantoms were beaten in their final two regular season games, 4-3 at home to Hull Seahawks and 5-1 at Leeds Knights over the weekend to finish fifth in the standings.

That’s landed them in a tough play-off group against league champions Swindon Wildcats, fourth-placed Sheffield Steeldogs and eight-placed Romford Raiders.

Swindon have been the outstanding team all season, while Sheffield, who are coached by Phantoms legend Slava Koulikov, beat the city side in the League Cup semi-final. Romford have also enjoyed success against Phantoms this season.

Phantoms open their post-season campaign in Sheffield on Friday (March 27, 7.30pm face-off) before hosting Koulikov’s side on Sunday (March 29, 5.30pm).

It’s then Romford away on Saturday April 4 (5.15pm) and the same team at Planet Ice on Sunday April 5 (5.30pm), before back-to-back games against the champions in Swindon on Saturday, April 11 (6.30pm) and at home on Sunday, April 12 (5.30pm).

The other play-off group involves Hull, Leeds, MK Lightning and Telford Tigers.

The top two from each group go to Finals Weekend in Coventry on April 19/20.

Final standings (all played 54): 1 Swindon 83pts, 2 Hull 71pts, 3 Leeds 69pts; 4 Sheffield 67pts, 5 PHANTOMS 64pts, 6 MK 63pts, 7 Telford 61pts, 8 Romford 53pts, 9 Solway 42pts, 10 Bristol 41pts, 11 Basingstoke 39pts.

The last regular season game at Planet Ice proved to be a decent one as Phantoms battled back from 2-0 down and 3-2 behind against Hull before conceding what turned out to be the winning goal in the 53rd minute.

Phantoms found themselves short benched again with Nojus Venskutonis, Nic Martin, AJ Herring, Brad Bowering, Alex Rushby, Ryan Bainborough, Callum Buglass, Luke Clark, Corey McEwen, Nathan Salem, Jasper Foster and Liam Oughton-Shaw all absent.

The visitors took the lead in the third minute when Jack Musil converted a rebound and they doubled their advantage with 6:07 on the clock when Emil Svec netted.

Phantoms pulled one back just after the midway point in the first period when Luke Ferrara threw one on net from the blue line and it took a nick off a stick in front before looping into the net.

Ashley Tait’s side got back on level terms inside the first two minutes of the second period when Luke Ferrara found Cam Hough on the back post for a tap in, to bring up the Canadian’s 100th point of the season.

The teams then traded chances for 10 minutes until Josh Hodgkinson took advantage of a goalie screen from Svec to blast home Hull’s third goal from the blue line. Scott Robson went close to a leveller shortly after, but his low effort was kicked away by Hull netminder Aleksanteri Heiskanen.

The third period didn’t contain much action in terms of high quality scoring chances, but Louie Kynaston broke the deadlock at 49:27 with a ripper into the top corner with Flynn Massie’s earning the assist for his first point for Phantoms.

Hull were given the chance to get back in front when Ralfs Circenis was called for hooking at 53:54 and four seconds of powerplay later Svec had won the game for his team.

Phantoms pushed hard and got the extra skater on towards the end of the game, but a great stop from Heiskanen to deny Dillon Lawrence and a near miss from Janne Laakkonen sealed Hull’s victory.

Phantoms scored first in Leeds through Laakkonen before Leeds got on top. Fin Bradon (2), Owen Sobchak, Bali Pakodzi and Danny Harrison scored the Leeds goals.