A demonstration of everyone working as a single team towards a common goal, on Sunday evening, saw the Peterborough Phantoms claim the points in an impressive 12-0 victory over the Sheffield SteelStings.
The game saw Lucy Smith back with the team after missing last weekend’s victory over the Manchester Mayhem, as a full strength Phantoms team took to the ice.
The game started with the Phantoms taking control in the opening minutes as they looked to test Andrew Jackson in the SteelStings goal. The visitors scored the first goal of the game on 3.37 after the Sheffield defence let Gary Farmer skate through on goal and fire the puck into the net.
Farmer made it 2-0 on 4.01. After skating the puck into the Phantoms zone, and carrying it around the Phantoms goal – whilst holding off the SteelStings attacker, Farmer fired a speculative shot from his own Blueline which sailed over the netminders glove and dropped into the back of the Sheffield goal – much to everyone, including Farmer’s, surprise.
On 5.54, Phantoms Jamie Hutchcraft broke through and whilst holding off two Sheffield defenders, fired a shot with pinged off the base of the Sheffield goalpost.
Phantoms nearly added a 3rd goal on 7.13 when they sprung Ali Amini and Stacey Quirk through on a breakaway. Ali’s pass found Stacey whose initial shot came back off Jackson in the Sheffield net and although the puck dropped to Ali his rebound shot was smothered by the sheffield netminder.
A minute later and Phantoms lost influencial D-Man Jamie Hutchrcraft for the rest of the opening period after taking a big hit from the front of a SteelStings sled into his upper leg.
With the clock running down in the opening Period the Phantoms kept up the pressure. On 13 minutes SteelStings Damien Barker decided to block a shot with his stick from Phantoms Gary Farmer, only to see his stick break into two as the puck hit it! 30 seconds later and the Phantoms did manage to net their 3rd of the period, when the puck found Callum Shakespeare who fired high into the top corner of the goal from close range.
The middle period started with the Phantoms hitting penalty trouble. Phantoms welcomed Jamie Hutchcraft back to the ice at the start of the period, but 30 seconds in and the D-Man was in the penalty box on a boarding call after a big hit on a Sheffield player by the Phantoms bench.
Just as Jamie finished serving his penalty, Phantoms were called on a holding penalty as they fought for the puck in the Sheffield zone, resulting in Ali Amini sitting for two minutes. 40 seconds later and a clearance by Gary Farmer flew out of the icepad without touching the plexi and the Phantoms D-Man joined Ali in the penalty box on a 2 minute Delay of Game call.
Despite the 5-on-4 and 5-on-3 advantage the SteelStings couldn’t take advantage of their numerical advantage and it was the Phantoms who finally found the opening goal of the period on 21.40 when Jamie Hutchcraft took the puck around the Sheffield Goal and through the tightest of angles managed to score on the wraparound.
The middle period was a scrappy affair with neither team having many scoring opportunities, compared to the opening 15 minutes. On 27.39 Ali Amini broke away and fed an inch perfect pass to D-Jay Hall who forced a good glove save from Jackson in the Sheffield net.
Phantoms 5th goal came on 28.35 when a mazey run from Gary Farmer ended with his shot pinging the crossbar before hitting the Sheffield net.
The final period started with Hutchcraft forcing a big glove save from Andrew Jackson after just 1.56. Phantoms made it 6-0 on 33.12 when Gary Farmer shot from out wide and across the Sheffield netty. 30 seconds later and D-Jay picked up a loose puck and was unlucky not to score as Jackson again pulled off a big glove save.
Farmer made it 7-0 on 37.27, which signaled the end of Andrew Jackson’s time in the Sheffield goal as he was replaced by Martin Hirst.
Stacey Quirk was unlucky on 38.06 when she saw her initial shot blocked by Hirst and then a scramble in front of the Sheffield goal as her rebound shots were eventually smothered down. She then turned goal provider on 38.47 when her pass to Farmer ended with the puck in the back of Hirst’s net to make it 8-0 to the visitors.
From the restart the Phantoms won the puck and pushed forward. Quirk received the puck and this time her high shot went over the Sheffield netminder and into the net for her opening goal on 39.04.
D-Jay Hall found himself in the penalty box on 40.12 after taking a shot on goal after the referee had blown their whistle for an off-side. Phantoms controlled the penalty kill and on 40.26 Callum Shakespeare went on a shorthanded breakaway which took some great defending by Ben O’Brien to stop the Phantoms Captain from getting a meaningful shot away.
With the clock running down, the game started to get a bit chippy, and Phantoms called a 30 second timeout to calm things down and stop the game getting out of hand.
A late Phantoms powerplay saw Gary Farmer make it 10-0 with a shot from the slot. Stacey Quirk netted her 2nd of the game, and Phantoms 11th on 44.21 as she fired home from a tight angle. Phantoms Man of the Match, Gary Farmer, rounded off the scoring on 44.37 to make the final score Sheffield SteelStings 0-12 Peterborough Phantoms.
