Two late goals from Phantoms secured a 2-2 draw in Sheffield tonight to leave the Autumn Cup Final perfectly poised for the second leg in Bretton next Friday.
The opening period saw neither side seriously threatening the opposition netminder as both D’s stayed comfortably on top. The best chances for Phantoms came from an Ales Padelek 1on1 breakaway that brought a fine pad save from Zimozdra in the Dogs goal and a close range opportunity from James Ferrara who scuffed his shot into the netminder’s body.
Period two remained distinctly scruffy with Dogs looking to skate through from deep but rarely troubling the organised Phantoms D and Phantoms doggedly sticking to their passing game that simply played into the hands of the hard grafting home side who were spoiling at every opportunity. In the end, the deadlock was broken when Kolena got the wood on a powerplay slapshot that was deflected in by Ash Calvert from close range. Dogs then went two up after driving behind the Phantoms goal before firing out to Calvert who fired home courtesy of a huge looping deflection off Will Weldon for 2-0. Phantoms did create the odd half chance with Buglass taking the paint off the top of the pipework but in general the Dogs D were still comfortably handling Phantoms offensive threats.
Into period three and both sides traded decent chances with Ales Padelek having the pick of the opportunities for Phantoms with two close range efforts that were simply too close to enable him to move Zimozdra. As the game moved into the last ten minutes, Phantoms started to gamble more bodies forward and were rewarded at 53:59 when Petr Stepanek worked the puck across to the wide open Glenn Billing who had time to place his wristshot into the top corner.
If Billing’s goal didn’t rock Dogs back on their heels, a second goal just nine seconds after the restart certainly did. The puck was fired across the Dogs zone and a neat reverse pass from James Ferrara found Ales Padelek on the back stick and he swept home a high backhander just inside the post as Zimozdra threw himself across his goal. Phantoms finished the stronger and a very late James Ferrara opportunity was pushed wide from close range and the netminder out of his goal that should have been the winner but, in the end, a draw was probably a fair result for both sides, neither of whom did enough to merit a victory.
Phantoms MOM was Callum Buglass.
Phantoms will undoubtedly be happy to bring the tie back to Bretton next Friday but it won’t be easy. Steeldogs made it clear once again tonight that they know Phantoms preferred style and know how to handle it so it could all boil down to small details, avoiding mistakes, taking chances …… should be a great occasion !