The final game of the 2024 BPIHA Season saw the Peterborough Phantoms take on the Manchester Mayhem, with the 3rd place in the Play-Off tournament up for grabs.
The game started at a frantic pace with the shortbenched Phantoms taking the lead after 57 seconds. Callum Shakespeare and gary Farmer both broke down the ice and Shakespeare’s deft pass to farmer game Jodi Hill little chance in the Mayhem net.
Manchester fought back with Karl Nicholson going close before they levelled the game on 2.24. Fliss Gregory broke down the wing before finding Rob Allen in front of the Phantoms net to put the puck past Gizz Lee in the Phantoms goal.
D-Jay Hall forced a briliant save from Jodi Hill on 5.30 and was unlucky to see his shot from the blue line deflected just wide a few minutes later.
Phantoms regained the lead on 9.39 when Phantoms rookie Lucy Smith battled for the puck on the boards, before passing out to Gary Farmer who netted his second of the game. Farmer ended the period in the penalty box after getting called for Boarding on 13.27.
The Phantoms took control of the game in the middle stanza as they rolled their players to keep everyone fresh.
On 17.37 D-Jay won the puck on the boards and found an unmarked Gary Farmer in the slot, however Farmers shot pinged off the crossbar and back out in front of the Mayhem goal.
On 18.53 the line of D-Jay, Callum and Gary found the Phantoms 3rd goal of the game after Farmers wide pass found Shakespeare unmarked at the backpost for the simplest of taap-ins to make it 3-1.
Karl Nicholson almost got the Mayhem on the scoreboard again on 20.35 after Phantoms defensive pair of Alysha Atkinsomn and Carl Sanger both thought each other was getting the puck. Nicholson nipped in between the two defenders but his shot was well saved by Gizz who saved his teammates blushes.
Nicholson forceed another good save from the Phantoms netty on 24.29 when his loop shot dropped onto the goal line before being smothered by Gizz.
Phantoms made it 4-1 on 25.20 when Farmer broke through the Mayhem defence and waited for Hill to commit before shooting low into the net.
Phantoms once again closed out the period in the penalty box as Callum Shakespeare was called for Tee’ing after a head to head hit on the wing with Karl Nicholson on 25.56.
The final period saw the teams share a further 6 goals!
Mayhem’s Mark Colquitt was called for holding on 32.22 and from the face-off D-Jay won the puck and found Callum Shakespeare whose speculative shot was deflected off a Mayhem sled into the goal to give the Phantoms a 5-1 lead.
Mayhem forced Gizz into action on 36.41 when Karl Nicholson’s pass into the Phantoms crease saw both teams go all Hungry Hippo’s as the Mayhem tried to force the puck over the line, whilst the Phantoms defence tried to clear it. In the end Gizz dived onto the puck to kill the play.
Farmer netted his 4th of the game on 37.22 firing over the netminder from close range to give the Phantoms a 6-1 lead. The goal saw the Phantoms switch netminders with MC replacing Gizz for the final part of the game – meaning both GB Women’s netminders were on the ice together.
The goal setup a crazy 7 minutes which saw the Phantoms ship 3 goals as they started to tire.
Karl Nicholson scored his first of the game on 39.47 with a shot from an extermely tight angle on the goalline, across MC, made it 2-6.
On 42.25 Nicholson found the back of the net once more. His solo breakawy saw him skate through the Phantoms defence before firing the puck off the crossbar and post into the net, and suddenly it was a 4-6 game.
A four minute hatrick was completed on 43.31 when Nicholson and Farmer both chased down a puck. Nicholson gt there first and his onetime shot went over MC’s head and into the net to make it Mayhem 4-6 Phantoms.
With the clock ticking downit was the Phantoms who netted the games final goal. On 43.57 D-Jay and Callum both broke down the ice with D-Jay feeding the puck to Callum to shoot under Jodi Hill to make the final score Mayhem 4-7 Phantoms.
The result saw the Phantoms claim the 3rd Place in the BPIHA Play-Offs for the second consecutive season.
Man of the Match awards went to Fliss Gregory for the Mayhem and Gary Farmer for the Phantoms.