The Peterborough Phantoms faced off against the Cardiff Huskies on Saturday afternoon with the 2024 British Para Ice Hockey League title on the line. Phantoms were missing winger Stacey Quirk and netminder Davina Hall for this top of the table clash.
A win for the Huskies would see the title return to Wales for the third successive year, whilst the Phantoms needed to win by 4 clear goals to steal the title. A Phantoms win by less than 4 goals would see them leapfrog the Sheffield Steelkings into 2nd spot, losing out on the League title on Goal Difference.
Games between these two teams are always fast, furious and entertaining with both stes of players respecting each other.
The game started at a frantic pace with Jodi Hill, in the Huskies goal, and Giz Lee, in the Phantoms goal, both tested early on. Huskies Tyler Christopher forced a good save from Lee in the opening 2 minutes before Phantoms Callum Shakespeare forced his GB teammate to make a big stick save to keep the game scoreless after 5 minutes.
Phantoms took the lead on 5.29 when Hill failed to hold onto a long range shot from Gary Farmer, and she could only watch on as the rebound dropped to Ali Amini who cooly slotted the puck under Hills sledge and into the back of the Cardiff net.
The goal increased the tempo even more as both teams looked to claim the next goal. A scramble in front of the Phantoms goal saw Paul Furber, Josh Campbell and Tyler Christopher all come close to scoring, but Giz Lee was a brick wall in the Phantoms goal. At the other end the Phantoms defence sent Callum Shakespeare through on a breakway, but Jodi Hill stood tall in the Cardiff goal to deny the Phantom.
Phantoms doubled their lead on 9.08. Gary Farmer saw his initial shot saved and as the puck dropped to Ali Amini his mis-hit shot went to D-Jay Hall who cooly backhanded the puck into the net to make it 2-0 to the homeside. The goal more than made up for his open goal miss in the previous game, and lead to him being mobbed by his teammates as they celebrated his first ever Phantoms goal.
Huskies pulled a goal back on 12.09 against the run of play. Josh Campbell’s pass found Tyler Christopher who skated in close before lifting the puck over Giz Lee to make it 2-1 at the first break.
The second period saw the Phantoms confidence grow as they started to control the game – the forwards were chasing every loose puck whilst everyone was finishing their checks.
Phantoms made it 3-1 on 19.27. With the Huskies attacking deep in the Phantoms zone, Gary Farmer picked Josh Campbell’s pocket to take the puck before turning and taking the puck back up the ice. Whilst being chased down and checked by the impressive Jonathon LeGalloudec, Farmer got off his shot from the face-off dot to shoot over Jodi Hills catcher for one of the goals of the season.
Despite the two goal defecit, the Huskies kept the pressure on the Phantoms, with LeGalloudec controlling the defensive zone, despite taking some big hits from the Phantoms, and feeding the puck to Josh Campbell and Tyler Christopher who were constantly looking to break into the Phantoms zone. Phantoms meanwhile were pushing high, cycling defenders Jamie Hutchcraft and Gary Farmer into the forward line to keep the pressure on the Huskies.
Phantoms fourth goal was another team effort on 25.10. Phantoms played the puck into the corner with Jamie Hutchcraft winning the puck fight with Jon LeGalloudec on the boards. His pass found D-Jay Hall, but as he was about to shoot from the edge of Jodi Hill’s crease, the puck was cleared out by Tyler Christopher. Unfortunately for the Huskies the puck ended up on the stick of Gary Farmer whose shot was heading for D-Jay’s head, until he ducked to let the puck find it’s way into the top corner of the Cardiff Goal to make it 4-1 to the Phantoms.
From the restart Huskies won the puck and Josh Campbell chased the puck down the boards. His pass found Tyler Christopher in the face-off circle and his shot bobbled over Giz Lee’s pads to make it 4-2.
The goal swung the momentum back in the Huskies favour, with the Phantoms now fighting to keep their 2 goal advantage into the period break.
Phantoms started the final period in the best way possible with a goal after 22 seconds. D-Jay Hall won the face-off and found Ali Amini who had beaten Paul Furber to the puck. Ali’s short pass to Callum Shakespeare allowed the Phantoms Captain to take the puck into the Huskies zone, before dropping the pass to Gary Farmer. Farmer was immediatley surrounded by 4 Huskies but found the unmarked Ali Amini breaking down the centre. Amini’s initial shot was charged down by Josh Campbell, but the puck dropped kindly to D-Jay Hall on the backpost to redirect the puck into the Cardiff net for his second of the game and the Phantoms fifth.
Phantoms now knew that they needed just one more goal to claim the League title, but the Huskies weren’t ready to release their grip on the League title and with the Phantoms starting to tire the Huskies started to have more opportunities.
Tyler Christopher forced a big save from Giz Lee straight from the restart before combining with Josh Campbell on 33.02 to see the puck stop on the Phantoms goalline under Lee’s sledge.
Lee was fianlly beaten on 35.07 when a high shot from Tyler Christopher saw the Huskies make it a 5-3 game.
Jonathon LeGalloudec came close to adding to the Huskies goal tally, whilst at the other end D-Jay Hall, Ali Amini and Jamie Hutchcraft all went close for the Phantoms.
As the buzzer sounded it was the Phantoms who were 5-3 victors and claimed the runners up spot in the league, whilst the Cardiff Huskies took the League title.
Man of the Match went to Tyler Christopher for the Huskies and D-Jay Hall for the Phantoms.
Phantoms finished the League campaign with 6 wins out of 8, to make it their most successful league campaign in 8 years. Next up is the Play-Off Tournament in Nottingham in September.