Having skated away from Bretton with a victory earlier in the season, the visiting Raiders were never going to be taken lightly on their second visit but, in reality, Phantoms have progressed some distance since their last meeting and were never anything less than comfortable winners in this one.
The opening shift of the game saw Raiders go close twice and within seconds of their next shift starting, top scorer Jake Sylvester had bundled home the opening goal with still less than a minute on the clock. Raiders enthusiastic start seemed to catch Phantoms a little unprepared as the visitors threw so many players forward that you half expected to see netminder Michael Gray crashing the net !
Of course throwing so many bodies forward in such a cavalier style was likely to open things up at the back and Phantoms soon realised that there were huge spaces to plunder at the other end of the ice and the game soon settled into a very untypical end to end and wide open affair as both sides traded odd-man rushes with seemingly carefree abandon.
Ales Padelek tied the game on 6:57 when a defensive blunder behind Gray’s net allowed the Phantoms forward to drive out on the wraparound and the same player put Phantoms ahead on 14:01 with a superb top corner wristshot that gave Gray no chance. The goal rattled the Raiders and straight from the face-off, Corey McEwen powered clear on the 1on1 to bury the puck through the five-hole for 3-1 Phantoms and it was time for Raiders to take a time-out to try to restore some composure.
Moving into the middle period, Phantoms had the balance of play but without ever switching off the relentless numbers crashing forward from Raiders but it should have proven suicidal as Phantoms transitional play was carving through the visitors to set up numerous 2on1 and 3on2 breakaways that should have served up more goals than the single blue-line powerplay marker from Petr Stepanek.
Period three opened with a game killing fifth from Phantoms and it was another powerplay blast from Petr Stepanek ….. this time with the sort of venom that would make any netminder want to stand aside and say “fair enough” !
At 5-1, Phantoms were in complete control, moving the puck well and creating chance after chance but, as is becoming standard fare now, those chances were going to waste leaving Raiders to grab a late consolation goal to tie a period that they shouldn’t have come close to but it was Phantoms victory to the tune of 5-2.
Man of the Match for Phantoms was two goal Petr Stepanek.
Raiders are an entertaining side to watch. Its hard to fathom out too many tactics in their game ….. its a case of throw everything forward and do your best – albeit that didn’t add up to much – to throw them back again if the opposition breaks away. You can see them causing trouble if teams are off their game or take them lightly but, in truth, their approach is so cavalier that the better teams should chalk up a fair few goals against them as should have been the case tonight.
Phantoms played some decent hockey in this one, they did eventually take control of Raiders raids and the transitional play from deep was excellent at times, setting up numerous very good scoring opportunities. Unfortunately, the forward play was too often too elaborate and/or hesitant otherwise this would have been a double digit victory. We are still taking the additional touch before trying to finish and that is shutting doors that are wide open when the pass is made ….. we need to default to one-time finishing and if we do that then we’ll double our goal scoring tally because the set-up play is very good indeed.
Need to keep on our toes Sunday night but another four point weekend should now be on the cards.
Game stats HERE