STEELKINGS 3-0 PHANTOMS

The Peterborough Phantoms Para Ice Hockey Team suffered their first defeat of the season on Sunday, when they were beaten 3-0 by the Sheffield SteelKings at the Bauer Arena in Sheffield.

The opening period saw Jonathan Gill in the Sheffield goal and Gizz Lee in the Phantoms goal both kept busy as both teams looked to break the deadlock. 

For the Steelkings, their youngsters “JP” Plummer, Daniel Clarke and Ben O’Brien were causing problems for the Phantoms up front, whilst former GB defenceman Matt Clarkson – back after a 5 year break, alongside current GB Defenceman Paul Brown were keeping things tight at the back.

Phantoms were rolling their 5 rookie D players, whilst GB’s Gary Farmer, Stacey Quirk, and Callum Shakespeare, aided by D-Jay Hall were forcing Gill into some big hilight reel saves.

Steelkings took the lead on 14.01 whe na goalmouth scramble saw the puck land with Matt Clarkson. With no shot availbale due to the number of bodies in front of the Phantoms goal, he lobbed the puck up into the air and over the shoulder of Gizz Lee to make it a 1-0 game.

Phantoms picked up a 2 minute Tee’ing penalty early in the second period, when Kevin Briggs, in just his 4th Para Ice Hockey game, mistimed his turn into a check and caught the Steelkings player on the boards. The Phantoms penalty kill held strong, even coming close on two occassions to getting a shorthanded goal, but on 19.32 a 2v1 break saw Jake Oakley and JP combine before Oakley found the back of the Phantoms net.

On   21.06 the home side made it a 3-0 game when Phantoms defense were slow in backchecking, leaving JP one on one with the netminder and despite Gizz Lee’s best efforts he couldn’t stop the youngester shot.

Both teams had opportunities to score further goals, but with both netminders playing the games of their lives it remained a 3-0 game upto the final buzzer.

Man of the Match went to Gary Farmer for the Peterborough Phantoms and Jonathon Gill for the SteelKings.

Phantoms now have a week off before a trip to Sheffield on the 6th July to face the Sheffield SteelStings.