Bewildered Phantoms fans were left with collective heads in hands this afternoon after seeing their side crash out of Coventry with a 4-1 defeat to Telford Tigers …… the question on the lips of many was “what on earth have I just watched ?!!!”.
Good news for Phantoms pre-game was the return of Owen Griffiths who couldn’t have been 100% but still made the start. Unfortunately but not unexpectedly, the posterior cruciate ligament injury suffered by Darius Pliskauskas had not miraculously resolved itself leaving the Phantoms #8 to watch the game alongside former teammates Edgars Bebris and Janis Auzins.
The first couple of shifts looked positive enough from Phantoms, indeed the first five minutes saw them in the ascendancy but ….. then it all started to unravel ! A hooking call on Will Weldon at 3:07 let the Tigers out of the cage and for the first time in the game they actually set up camp in the Phantoms zone and seemed to enjoy themselves even if they didn’t open the scoring. Goal or no goal, the Tigers seemed to grow in confidence at about the same rate as Phantoms fell apart !
Phantoms were largely in control of things at the back but they were having huge problems in the transition from defence to offense, throwing passes that looked more zonal than tape-to-tape. Players were having to adjust to receive passes and that enabled Tigers to step in and steal ….. and it kept happening. Eventually it was going to cost us and, at 15:26, Rick Plant was given two chances to beat Euan King, the first drew a pad save, the second lit the lamp for 1-0 Tigers.
Most of the Phantoms faithful were still reasonably confident at the first break and were looking forward to a refocused Phantoms in the second but alas, those hopes were soon dashed as Phantoms not only continued to waste possession but were also starting to leave Tigers players in alarming amounts of space in front. Thankfully, Euan King was standing strong despite the lack of support in front of him and Phantoms did eventually start to crank up a little pressure on the Tigers goal.
It was ironic, however, that just as Phantoms were looking to turn the screw, they hit the self destruct button by combining coaching merits to put six skaters on the ice and draw a too many men penalty. Tigers could not have believed their good fortune and wasted no time in doubling their lead through Scott McKenzie. There was no noticeable response from Phantoms which could have been a reassuring sign but then again maybe they just didn’t know how to respond ….. either way, it was 3-0 by just over the midpoint, again thanks to a cheap powerplay opportunity with Macaulay Halford deflecting in a Jonathan Weaver slapshot.
Now it really was panic time and a rare heads up offensive play saw Ales Padelek feed James White and Phantoms were quickly on the scoresheet ….. the tide had turned surely but no, for the remainder of the period, it still remained Tigers in the ascendancy and any kitchen sinks were being thrown at Euan King’s goal as the Tigers outshot Phantoms 14-5 in the period.
Period three did at last serve up a little urgency from Phantoms but by now, Tigers were more than prepared just to spoil and hold on to what they had. Netminder Denis Bell had only seen nine shots on his goal in the first forty minutes but now it was raining rubber on him but he was ready for whatever came his way, pulling off a fair number of decent saves but also benefiting from a fair dose of good fortune as pucks were bouncing all around his zone.
Euan King was pulled early as Phantoms threw everything at the Tigers goal but on days like this one, you just know what is coming and Scott McKenzie fired home a near rink-length empty netter on 58:46 to hammer the last of the nails into Phantoms coffin !
First up, the two small but bright lights of positivity from the game. Euan King stood firm when all around him was going horribly wrong. Without Euan’s form, it would have been near double figures and he can certainly hold his head high ….. not that I’m sure he’ll take much consolation from that. Secondly, James White’s performance was easily the best of any phantoms player. He was man of the match by so far that he would have lapped any other recipient of the award ….. probably twice ! James played a Coventry game ….. he played like it meant something to him ….. we needed some more James Whites !
The rest of the roster were either average or below average. You do NOT do average at Coventry ….. Coventry is the peak of the season and you simply don’t do average. For those who never even made average, only they can possibly know what that was about !
Phantoms roster was at least twice as strong as Tigers roster. CV v CV, Phantoms were streets ahead but rosters don’t win silverware ….. teams win silverware and Tigers had a team and we did not. Tigers passed the puck with an accuracy that looked near telepathic compared to Phantoms but it wasn’t telepathic, it was exactly how you should be passing the puck at the end of a season where you have played together forty plus times. Phantoms looked like they had never played together before. The passing was poor even when we did see the intended recipient but all too often there simply was no recipient ……. so more endless recycling of the puck in the hope a recipient might appear at some point. Tigers instinctively knew where their linemates were, we evidently did not !
I could go on with criticisms but there is no point as the season is now over. All I can hope for is that I never, ever see that collection of players and coaches at Peterborough again. The chemistry is all wrong, it has been evidently wrong since before Christmas and when the chemistry is wrong then you will never gel players and if you don’t gel players then you will never build a team and that is where we have ended the season ….. good players, poor team.
We mustn’t throw any babies out with the bathwater but I sincerely pray that we have learnt enough this season to put together a better balanced roster for next season ….. a roster that has enough character players to both entertain the fans AND provide the glue in the locker room that is needed to create the team. What’s Marc Levers doing nowadays ?!!!
Game stats HERE