Son of Peterborough Phantoms legend makes his mark for the club

His father Doug is one of the all-time Peterborough hockey greats '“ and Corey McEwen is not making a bad start to life in Phantoms' colours either.
Two-goal Corey McEwen in action for Phantoms against Telford. ©2018 Tom Scott. All rights reserved.Two-goal Corey McEwen in action for Phantoms against Telford. ©2018 Tom Scott. All rights reserved.
Two-goal Corey McEwen in action for Phantoms against Telford. ©2018 Tom Scott. All rights reserved.

The summer recruit struck two goals that set the city side on the way to victory in their first competitive outing of the new campaign last night (September 15).

More than three quarters of an NIHL Autumn Cup showdown against Telford had passed without a breakthrough before a flurry of late activity resulted in a 3-1 success for Phantoms at a sparsely populated Planet Ice.

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McEwen, who spent his last British season in 2016/17 with Telford, pounced for the opener against his former club after Ales Padelek hit a post during a third-period powerplay.

Phantoms netminder Jordan Marr in action against Telford. ©2018 Tom Scott. All rights reserved.Phantoms netminder Jordan Marr in action against Telford. ©2018 Tom Scott. All rights reserved.
Phantoms netminder Jordan Marr in action against Telford. ©2018 Tom Scott. All rights reserved.

The same player soon doubled the advantage when seizing on a poor Tigers pass in their defensive zone and rifling past netminder Denis Bell, but Phantoms allowed Scott McKenzie to halve their lead when he gobbled up a rebound.

McKinney then picked up a boarding penalty just as the visitors threatened to mount a late push to get level and his indiscipline was duly punished on the powerplay that followed as Glenn Billing put away a perfect Petr Stepanek pass from behind the net with little more than a minute remaining.

Phantoms did have the puck in the net again in the dying seconds after Telford pulled Bell only for captain James Ferrara’s strike into the empty net to be disallowed due to Padelek being offside, but that job was already done.

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Head coach Slava Koulikov said: “Telford had played four competitive games ahead of last night whereas we had played two challenges.

Will Weldon controls the puck against Telford. ©2018 Tom Scott. All rights reserved.Will Weldon controls the puck against Telford. ©2018 Tom Scott. All rights reserved.
Will Weldon controls the puck against Telford. ©2018 Tom Scott. All rights reserved.

“They are further down the line than us in terms of fitness and tactics so it is very pleasing to pick up the win and the two points.

“It’s not often that it takes so long for a goal to arrive in a game, but we told our guys after the second period that it would come if they kept doing what they were doing.

“Corey is good on the puck and off it. He plays with an edge and possesses the sort of explosive speed that creates opportunities for himself and others.

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“But there were a lot of guys who played well in a good team performance. It was important to win at home and we’ll try to keep building momentum by following it up in Telford tonight.”

The teams meet again in Shropshire today (September 16, 6pm) before Phantoms launch their NIHL Division One South campaign next weekend.

MATCH DETAILS

Goals

PHANTOMS

48:12 McEwen (PP) ass: Padelek/J. Ferrara

52:03 McEwen unassisted

58:52 Billing (PP) ass: Stepanek/Ferguson

TELFORD

54:12 McKenzie ass: McKinney

Men-of-the-match

Phantoms – Corey McEwen

Telford – Scott McKenzie