A huge hat-trick performance from captain James Ferrara dragged Phantoms over the line in a tough “banana-skin” fixture at Romford on Sunday evening.
The Raiders are building quite a reputation for starting games well and then imploding at the death as their conversion of a 5-1 lead into a 5-6 defeat on Saturday night underlined. With that in mind, it felt quite reassuring to see Phantoms take the opening period 1-2 with James Ferrara opening the scoring with just 2:02 on the clock. Raiders did strike back at 11:18 but Captain James simply crashed home a second goal only 28 seconds after the restart.
An early Rob Ferrara hooking call in the middle period set up Aaron Connolly for a powerplay strike to make it 2-2 and with the period deteriorating into a contest between special teams as the penalties racked up, that scoreline rolled into a final period with a script that suggested the home side might just fall apart but would they really ?
The answer was a resounding “no” and with matching penalties still cluttering up the gamesheet, we rolled into the last ten minutes with nobody prepared to call the outcome but it was the Phantoms skipper who once again stepped forward to nail his hat-trick marker and what was to prove the game winner with a goal at 51:20. Both sides kept five skaters on the ice for the frantic finale but, as has been proven before, nobody defends a narrow lead at the death better than this Phantoms side who will be very pleased and relieved to take a maximum from what is undoubtedly the biggest “banana skin” fixture of the season.
Phantoms MOM was James Ferrara.
Game stats HERE