MATCH REPORT: Phantoms 11, Hull 6: Prolific Phantoms exact revenge

The city side thumped Hull Pirates 11-6 in an NIHL National Cup clash at Planet Ice – setting the record straight after their only defeat of the new campaign in the process.

Such scorelines might not curry favour with ice hockey purists concerned about a drop in quality in the sport’s new second tier, but those who enjoy seeing their team regularly find the twine will surely be happy.

That has happened 31 times in the last two home games which a 13-1 drubbing of depleted Cardiff Fire in Division One South the previous Saturday being followed by this 17-goal contest. Phantoms also recorded a 10-0 win away in Cardiff last Sunday.

“The most important thing was picking up the two points to get ourselves back on track in this competition after losing our opening game in Hull,” said Phantoms head coach Koulikov.

“We didn’t start in the way we wanted to, which may have been down to the games we had last weekend, and we also conceded some weak goals.

“But we dominated much of the game and showed plenty of resilience when Hull came back at us.

“We haven’t seen a game with 17 goals for a long time and it wasn’t one-sided either. The entertainment was certainly there.”

Nathan Salem struck the opener from a tight angle against his former club, but Phantoms’ lead lasted less than minute and a half.

The sides then traded short-handed goals – Hull’s as a result of a poor Leigh Jamieson pass and an Adam Long fumble, while Phantoms’ leveller was the product of a slick breakaway between captain James Ferrara and scorer Glenn Billing.

A quick scoring burst of three goals in just under two minutes from Owen Griffiths, Billing and Ferrara gave Phantoms a useful cushion early in the second period before a soft effort kept Hull in contention.

Salem classily created a tap-in for Jamieson to restore the three-goal advantage, but Hull were back to within one by the end of the period.

The contest was finely poised at that point, but Phantoms bossed the final session to claim an important victory in their mission to qualify from Group B.

Billing completed his treble 49 seconds into the period and Darius Pliskauskas joined the scoring party within a minute.

An Ales Padelek thunderbolt followed before James Archer, who spent last season as a Phantoms player, poked in a sixth goal for the visitors.

Netminder Long denied them a seventh when keeping out a Bonner penalty shot and the two remaining goals both arrived at the other end.

Ferrara fired his side into double-figures again before releasing youngster Taylor Romeo to grab a first senior goal.

Phantoms are back in action this lunchtime (October 8, 1pm) when travelling to Sheffield Steeldogs in the NIHL Autumn Cup.

MATCH DETAILS

Goals

Phantoms

3:03 Salem ass: Pliskauskas/Norton

12:09 Billing (SH) ass: J. Ferrara

23:03 Griffiths ass: Pliskauskas

24:39 Billing ass: R. Ferrara

25:09 J. Ferrara ass: Pliskauskas/R. Ferrara

29:13 Jamieson ass: Salem/Russell

40:49 Billing ass: Padelek

41:41 Pliskauskas ass: Griffiths/J. Ferrara

50:56 Padelek ass: Salem/Knaggs

56:39 J. Ferrara ass: Griffiths/Pliskauskas

58:30 Romeo ass: J. Ferrara

Hull

4:31 Davies ass: Hewitt/Archer

8:12 Hewitt (SH)

27:35 Bonner ass: Stubley

33:13 Chilcott (PP) ass: Davies/Bonner

37:27 Davies ass: Stubley/Bonner

52:56 Archer ass: Bonner/Haywood

Men-of-the-match

Phantoms – Glenn Billing

Hull – Lee Bonner