Bees IHC 3-5 Peterborough Phantoms

A big game for both sides as it was the first playoff game for Bees and Phantoms as Leeds and Hull already completed one of their fixtures in the previous night.

An early power play for the Bees due to a penalty called against Phantoms’ captain Will Weldon saw the Bees take advantage of the extra skater and Vanya Antonov managed to get the puck to the back of the goal. The goal was timed at 5:40 with an assist awarded to Bees captain Stuart Mogg. Not long after the Phantoms were able to equalise the game due to a power play opportunity as Harvey Stead had a Slashing penalty called against him. This gave Lukas Sladkovosky the perfect chance to bring the game level again with the goal timed at 7:24 with assists awarded to Martin Susters and Will Weldon. Aiden Doughty saw himself with a breakaway chance and secured the 2nd Bees goal of the night with an unassisted goal timed at 10:03. The last 10 minutes of the period was back and forth with penalties called against both sides but the first period ended 2-1 in favour of the Bees. 

Early success for the Phantoms as Lukas Sladkovsky slotted the puck to the back of the Bees goal at 24:12 with assists awarded to Martin Susters and Luk Ferrara to yet again equalise the game at 2-2. Less than 2 minutes later Ivan Nordstrom also managed to find the back of the goal to regain the lead for the Phantoms with Tom Norton receiving an assist on the goal. The Bees found themselves on the penalty kill as a Holding penalty was called against Marcel Balaz, but not long after the Bees returned back to full strength Martin Susters secured the 4th goal of the night for the Phantoms at 32:00. This saw the 2nd period end 4-2 in favour of the Peterborough Phantoms and left a big hurdle for the Bees to tackle in the third and final period.

At the start of the third period both teams found penalties called against them but both were able to kill them. A slow start offensively for both teams during the first 10 minutes of the period but then at 49:44 Ivan Nordstrom secured the Phantoms’ fifth goal of the night, as well as his second goal of the game, with an assist awarded to Ales Padelek. Words were exchanged between Liam Morris and Joe Gretton after a disagreement over a hit made but this saw Joe Gretton face a 2+2 for Roughing and Liam Morris faced 2 minutes for Roughing. During the last minute of the game Gianni Vitali found the back of the Phantoms goal and left the game finishing 5-3 in favour of the Phantom.