The 2024 British Para Ice Hockey Play-Off Semi-Final saw the Peterborough Phantoms take on the Sheffield Steelkings at the Motorpoint Arena in Nottingham.
Phantoms knew they would be missing key forwards Stacey Quirk and Ali Amini for the weekend, but were dealt a double blow on Saturday morning when they lost defenders Jamie Hutchcraft (Work) and Carl Sanger (Injury) meaning they were down to one regular defender.
Despite being short benched the Phantoms put on a brave display before eventually succumbing to a 5-2 defeat at the hands of the Sheffield Steelkings.
The game started at a frantic pace and within the opening 2 minutes Steelkings Jon ‘JP’ Plummer had forced a good save from Phantoms Netminder Gizz Lee, before at the other end Steelkings Paul Brown was saved his blushes when his attempted clearance came off the Steelkings post with netminder Sean Grocock beaten.
Brown found himself in the penalty box on 2.39 having been called for Roughing on Phantoms D-Jay Hall after he brought the Phantoms breakaway to an abrupt halt. Despite the numerical advantage the Phantoms failed to trouble Grocock, whilst at the other end a shorthanded breakaway saw Lee make a big double save from the Steelkings to keep the game scoreless.
The Steelkings took the lead on 7.07 as their young dangerline of Connor Grocock, JP and Daniel Clarke moved the puck around in front of the Phantoms goal before Grococks hich shot from outwide found the top corner of the Phantoms goal.
With just the one sub the Phantoms were trying to match the Steelkings momentum and were happy to sit back and sock up the pressure as they looked to hit the Steelkings on the breakaway with Gary Farmer playing the feeder role to D-Jay Hall and Callum Shakespeare on the wings.
Steelkings made it 2-0 on 9.50 when JP found Daniel Clarke whose backhanded shot bobbled over Gizz Lee’s glove and dropped into the back of the Phantoms net.
Phantoms kept pushing forward, but at the first interval it was a 2-0 game to the team from Yorkshire.
The second period saw the Steelkings keep up the pressure but on 18.15 they hit penalty trouble when they were called for Too Many Men. With a player in the penalty box they struggled to count to 4, putting 5 players out for the face-off before the officials pointed out they still ha too many players on the ice – giving the Phantoms a longer break to regroup.
Phantoms pushed up on the powerplay with some nice passing from Hall and Shakespeare and Farmer hitting the Steelkings post. Phantoms then found themselves reduced to 4 players when D-Jay hall was called for a Delay of Game penalty for covering the puck with his hand when battling Steelkings Paul Brown on the boards.
The Phantoms played a 3 man defence with Hall in the box with JP forcing a double scrambling save from Giz Lee in the Phantoms goal just as the Steelkings went onto a 5-on-4 powerplay. On 21.07 it was 3-0 to the Steelkings. Phantoms Gary Farmer lost his stick leaving Bill Hardy to feed the puck to Jake Oakley to fire past Gizz Lee.
If there’s one thing the Phantoms have shown this season, it’s that they will never give up and will fight for the full 45 minutes. On 23.31 they pulled a goal back to reduce the defecit. Gary Farmer picked up the puck in the Phantoms zone and went coast to coast before firing a shot that went under Sean Grococks arm and into the Steelkings net.
Jake Oakley hit the Phantoms crossbar on 27.05 but that miss was to prove costly when on 28.32 another Gary Farmer break saw him hold off 3 Steelking players and get a shot away that had goal written all over it as soon as it left his stick.
Phantoms controlled the puck for the last 90 seconds of the period to send the teams into the second break with a solitary goal between them.
The final period saw a tiring Phantoms team chasing the game as they fought to get the goal they needed. With players starting to tire the Phantoms had 4 defensive players at times as they looked to clear their zone and rest thair arms. At the same time players like Alysha Atkinson in defence and Gary Farmer up front knew that they would need to play a 45minute game with no breaks as the only Phantoms sub was Lucy Smith who was a Forward.
With 16 seconds on the clock the Steelkings made it 4-2 when Daniel Clarke lobbed the puck over Gizz Lee from close range to give the Kings some breathing room.
Phantoms were on the powerplay on 34.18 when Jake Oakley was sent tothe penalty box for Teeing. He was joined in the penalty boxes by Phantoms D-Jay Hall on 35.36 when he was also called for a Teeing call.
When the Steelkings returned to the powerplay it was the Phantoms who had the better scoring opportunity when shot just wide of Grococks net.
Steelkings gave themselves some breathing room on 38.19 when the newly married Rachel Oakley fed the puck to Jake to shoot high under the crossbar to make it 5-2.
The Phantoms continued to push forward and on 39.21 Gary Farmer his the Crossbar before the puck found itsway back nto the centre to Callum Shakespear who could only watch in disbelief as his shot pinged off the goalpost.
On 42.01 Phantoms were on the penalty kill with Gary Farmer called for Hooking and despite the Phantoms hitting the Steelkings crossbar again on 44.28 they couldn’t find the back of the net.
Final Score: Peterborough Phantoms 2-5 Sheffield Steelkings.
Peterborough now face the Manchester Mayhem on Sunday lunchtime in the Bronze Medal game, before the Cardiff Huskies take on the Sheffield Steelkings in the Play-Off Championship game.
Man of the Match:
Peterborough Phantoms: Gizz Lee (NM)
Sheffield Steelkings: Daniel Clarke