Superb comeback success saves the National League weekend for Peterborough Phantoms

It looked like being a pointless couple of days for the city skaters as they followed a 5-1 defeat at leaders Swindon Wildcats on Saturday by falling 4-1 down midway through the match at home to the side next-to-bottom in the table the following night.

But Phantoms rallied to level at 4-4 and again hit back to get to 5-5 before claiming victory in a penalty shootout as netminder Hayden Lavigne stood tall to save all three Solway efforts.

There were other heroes as Cam Hough hit a hat-trick and Janne Laakkonen assisted on every Phantoms goal. Ashley Tait’s side remain fourth in the table with six wins in nine matches ahead of games next weekend at bottom club Basingstoke Bison (Saturday, 6.30pm face-off) and at home to Romford Raiders (Sunday, 5.30pm).

Phantoms have won all five of their home matches so far this season, but have picked up just one win on their travels.

Standings: 1 Swindon P10 17pts, 2 Leeds P10 16pts, 3 Telford P9 13pts, 4 PHANTOMS P9 12pts, 5 Sheffield P10 11pts, 6 MK P9 11pts, 7 Hull P9 7pts, 8 Romford P9 7pts, 9 Bristol P9 6pts, 10 Solway P8 3pts, 11 Basingstoke P4 2pts.

Phantoms appeared to be in choppy waters against the Sharks. Hough did equalise the opening goal from visiting forward Dylan Stewart, but a lucky goal for Callum Boyd which travelled past Lavigne to give Solway a 2-1 lead at the end of the first period.

Powerplay goals for Derek Osik and Jake Bolton then appeared to give the visitors a commanding advantage, but crucially Dillon Lawrence pulled a goal back before the second intermission and Hough beat former Phantoms netminder Jordan Marr at the start of the final period to make it 4-3.

And two minutes later Luke Ferrara netted from a Lawrence pass to level the scores, only for Jordan Buesa to instantly fire Solway back in front. Hough completed his hat-trick with just under 10 minutes to play and there was no further scoring in regulation time, or in five minutes of sudden death added time with Lavigne making an impressive seven saves in the extra period.

Lavigne then shone in the shootout as Phantoms maintained their perfect record in overtime matches. Hough and Ferrara converted their penalty shots to make it four wins in four when matches have stretched beyond 60 minutes.

It had been a different story in Swindon. Phantoms were the first team to beat the impressive Wildcats this season earlier this month, but they paid the penalty for a poor second period in Wiltshire when the home side extended their lead from 2-0 to 5-1.

Hough did briefly reduce the arrears to 2-1 in the 28th minute with help from Callum Buglass, but the Wildcats were too strong and would have won by a bigger margin, but for the excellence of Lavigne.