A defeat is never a cause for celebration but facing the league’s number one form team on their ice and without your top points scorer is a real hill to climb. Losing one of your top British forwards early in the game and collapsing to a 4-1 deficit before the midpoint and that hill is suddenly a combination of Everest and K2 in a snow storm but Phantoms were in no mood to give up on their season just yet.
Starting without Darius Pliskauskas, Phantoms were soon without Owen Griffiths who took a heavy hit from former Phantom Eddie Bebris and spent the rest of the game with his arm in a sling. Cats had the early jump and Jordan Kelsall put them 1-0 up on 6:56 but Phantoms struck back when Glenn Billing and Ales Padelek combined for the latter to score on 8:24. Bebris then crashed one inside Euan King’s near post to put Cats back ahead by the first buzzer and a Max Birbraer strike early in the second had alarm bells ringing for Phantoms.
Phantoms needed to put a hold on the damage at that point but Sam Bullas converted at 27:53 to put the home side comfortably clear at 4-1. At 35:16, Scott Robson clashed with Steve Whitfield and then Sam Bullas to give Phantoms a net 5on4 powerplay which failed to deliver a much needed goal but that fight became indicative of a Phantoms never-say-die response going into the final period.
An early goal in the last twenty was needed and with only 3:02 on the period clock, Nathan Salem pounced to drive home a huge and deserved goal to reduce the Cats lead to two goals. Cats picked up the only powerplay of the period during which Aaron Nell pinged the pipework but Phantoms hung tough to see out the game with a scoreline that they may well have taken pre-game and a scoreline they would have jumped at when 4-1 down at the midpoint.
Phantoms man of the Match was Nathan Salem.
So ….. it is all on for Sunday and Phantoms have bought themselves a ticket for this one courtesy of winning the final 32 minutes at Swindon 1-0 and they need to take that as not only a confidence boost but as a reminder that when their application is right then they can and will beat the Wildcats.
The key Sunday evening will now be to strike the right balance between the proven tactical nous of our coaches and the undoubted passion that our players must have for keeping this season alive. If we lose our heads then we’ll throw it away through indiscipline but if we over think this one and attempt to win this purely on tactics and systems then we will be overrun by a Wildcats side who must now be fearing the most hostile of games.
It’s our barn, its our horrible ice, its our fans and we’ve battled hard tonight to give ourselves a real chance to win …… make sure you are there and help make this happen !
Game stats HERE