A look at the premature end to the play-offs for the Phantoms, and an end of season sign off from ‘beyond the blue line’ …
Sheffield Steeldogs 2 Peterborough Phantoms 6
Peterborough Phantoms 5 Telford Tigers 2
Guildford Flames 5 Peterborough Phantoms 2
So that’s that. The dust is settling on the Phantoms’ 2016-17 season with the players and fans merely observers as Telford, Guildford, Milton Keynes and Basingstoke contest the last silverware of the year.
Last week’s Saturday night home fixture against Telford was a must-win – Guildford had beaten Sheffield on Friday which meant that the only way that the Phantoms could reach the Coventry jamboree would be to win out against the Tigers and the Flames, and hope for a miracle from the Steeldogs in their final game against Telford on Sunday.
As it transpired, despite the fact that the Tigers crushed the Steeldogs on Sunday to ensure their place in the final four, the Phantoms’ victory against the Tigers was a perfect example of just how good the Phantoms have been this year and how, when everything clicks, there is no better team on home ice in the league than Slava Koulikov’s men.
Buoyed by a bumper crowd boosted by good numbers from Telford, the Phantoms showed great intensity from the off, took the lead with barely a minute on the clock through Ales Padelek in a whistle-stop first period that saw James Archer answer the call to defend his netminder after Sam Zajac had upended Auzins behind his net. Honours to Zajac, but good work from Archer in defending his goat tender nevertheless.
The Phantoms’ first period lead was chalked off within two minutes of the start of the second period as Clarkson fired in a blueliner on an early powerplay, but the Phantoms wouldn’t be undone – Bebris levelled with a powerplay goal of his own to restore the Phantom’ lead at the end of two periods, and though Jason Silverthorn scored for the visitors in the third after Bebris had tucked away his second of the evening, Petr Stepanek and Robbie Ferrara ensured the play-off race would be taken to the final round of games.
There have been some terrific games in Peterborough this year and this was another, underlining the quality within the Phantoms’ organisation as the Phantoms capably dealt with an outfit that had put seven unanswered goals past them during the previous weekend.
The Guildford game on Sunday was lost in the third period, following a first period lead as Pliskauskas cancelled out an early Savage strike and Robson had scored the go ahead goal before McKinney tied things at two in the second frame.
Guildford is a tough place to go and the Phantoms haven’t found wins easy to come by at The Spectrum, but I suspect that had Telford not been thrashing the Steeldogs to secure their own play-off berth the Phantoms may have had enough to pull off a rare win in Surrey. As it was the Flames scored three in the final stanza to wave goodbye to the EPL with a win on home ice, including a short-handed strike from McKinney that sent the Phantoms home thinking of what might have been.
Whilst players like Auzins, Stepanek and Padelek grab the glory, and in a sense that’s what the more highly paid imports are here to do, it is important to recognise the importance and impact of the British players in this Phantoms’ roster.
In some senses it is unfair to single out players for their contributions, but it is appropriate to recognise one or two of our Brits here.
Levers contribution to the team cannot be underestimated; though Marc missed a number of games through injury he remained the top scoring British player at the club, and his influence spreads much more deeply than simply notching goals and racking up assists.
Weldon and Norton have had good seasons too. Whichever line Weldon is on he gives his best and even when a game looks lost Will Weldon can be called upon to scrap for a face-off, be counted alongside Levers on a PK, or throw himself at the puck to make a last ditch stand.
Tom Norton is one of the best Brit D men in the league and Robbie Ferrara has proven his worth to the Phantoms throughout the season, while James Ferrara and James Archer seemed to be going from strength to strength as the season ran its course, with the home play-off games being amongst the best performances from the pair this year.
In his breakout year in the EPL Owen Griffiths turned up to play every game ended the year as a key forward, often facing off against much more experienced opponents. Owen is hugely popular at the club and alongside the names mentioned above Levers, Weldon, Norton, the Ferraras and Archer, I would hope that he returns next year.
Defensively Tom Stubley had a promising year and with Robson and Russell missed large parts of the year through injury I suspect that getting back up to speed late in the season was difficult for them both, but I would be happy to see both return – with a good preseason they should be at the heart of the Phantoms defensive ranks next year.
With Coventry looming Phantoms’ fans will be disappointed that their team will not be there. From my point of view I do not believe that there was too much focus on the cup final which meant that crucial league points were dropped giving the Phantoms a less favourable group in the play-off shake up. Results against Telford and Guildford had been good at home in the regular season, and I just don’t believe that it would’ve been easier to play MK or Basingstoke for the right to play in Coventry. Whilst observers have pointed to a home defeat against the league’s basement club, Bracknell, as being key, I can’t help but feel that things are far less clear cut.
In essence, if the Phantoms hadn’t had such a disastrous middle period in Telford in the play-offs, or if they’d played with the intensity of the home win against Telford against Guildford the previous week (a team they’d beaten three times in the league already, including two wins by five goal margins early in the season and a 7-6 hangover victory the night after losing the cup-final) then the Coventry dream would still have been alive.
Guildford came into Peterborough believing they could win, and following the heavy defeat in Telford you couldn’t help but sense that the Phantoms just didn’t believe they were going to win that home game against eth Flames.
Nevertheless, I think the team did run out of steam, largely due to the impact of the cup final defeat in Milton Keynes in which the Lightning outplayed the Phantoms at home, and squeezed past them by the narrowest of margins. By that point of course, Martins Susters was long gone, but statistically at least, the mid-February departure of a player that by all accounts was unhappy in Peterborough was a change to the roster that saw a promising goal scoring forward leave the club at a point where it would’ve been impossible to get a replacement.
I’d like to finish this piece with a big thank you to all of the ‘beyond the blue line’ readers – there will be more from me in the not too distant future about my take on the future of the league, and why, whilst I think that whilst Dave and Jo Lane’s terrific business model has appeared to have worked here in Peterborough I worry about the sport at our level going forward, but for now, in advance of Coventry 2017 I’ll sign off.
I’ve written 204 ‘Beyond the Blue Line’ posts since I started this blog back in July 2013 and in the meantime there has been almost 34,000 views from people who have stopped by to get their fix of EPL hockey, the Phantoms, and at the very beginning, Wolverhampton Wanderers too.
Thanks for calling in, and all being well there’ll be more from me in advance of the 2017-18 season.
My role at the club has changed over the last couple of years to being the main commentator on the Phantoms’ live streams, which has made writing that little more difficult as it is virtually impossible to make notes whilst presenting a game for an online audience, but I hope readers have enjoyed the stuff I’ve put together nevertheless.
It’s time for a break – enjoy your summer, and let’s hope the Premier Ice Hockey League is a going concern in the autumn.
The Peterborough Phantoms can be found online at http://www.gophantoms.co.uk/
You can also follow the club on Twitter at @GoPhantoms
If you have any comments or observations I’d love to hear from you. Find me on Twitter at @phil_smith66 and Instagram its_phil_smith and follow for regular Phantoms updates.
beyond the blue line 