Son of Peterborough Phantoms legend makes his mark for the club
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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Hide AdMcEwen, 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.
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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Hide AdHead coach Slava Koulikov said: “Telford had played four competitive games ahead of last night whereas we had played two challenges.
“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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Hide Ad“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