Two goals from captain Clint Herring top and tailed a big Bretton win for Phantoms 2 tonight as their closest rivals in the league table put up a more than spirited fight to leap frog them into fifth place.
The openings were penalty strewn but the visitors defied the man down at 8:50 to score shorthanded through Oliver Denis but captain Herring matched the feat at 14:09, scoring shorthanded with Conor Hunter in the sin bin. Phoenix still took the opening period with a go-ahead goal from Stoodley at 18:09.
Period two saw Brad Moore tie the game with a powerplay strike on 23:05 and Kenny Bavin struck with a neat finish on 25:31 to turn the game Phantoms way. As the game passed the midpoint Phantoms Kieron Raynor and Guildford’s Bailey Wootton clashed after a boarding call on the latter with both sitting out 2+2+2 calls. Conor Pollard extended Phantoms lead on 32:28 but another big bust up involving Shaun Yardley saw Richardson grabbing one back for Phoenix at 36:58 with another shorthanded strike to end the middle period 4-3.
Period three saw Phantoms jump back into a two goal lead as Bradley Bowering struck unassisted at 41:27 and Clint Herring grabbed his second of the night with 46:09 on the clock for 6-3. Fireworks then went off again as Craig Wallis clashed with Luke Tull to add another 10 minutes to the game’s penalty total at 49:26 and Phoenix took advantage on the resulting powerplay to pull it back to 6-4 but despite both sides continuing to trade minor calls, Phantoms held on to win and open up a gap of three points over Guildford in fifth place in the table.
Phantoms will be back in action next Sunday, face off 5:30pm, with another tasty home tie against title favourites Bracknell Hornets who have only lost one game so far this season …… should be a cracker !
Game stats HERE