This was the big “banana skin” fixture in Phantoms title run-in and the struggles of title rivals Basingstoke Bison at the same venue last weekend set this one up as a major challenge but Slava Koulikov’s side made light work of their opponents with another very efficient road win.
Despite going a goal down early in the game after Rob Ferrara was caught the wrong side of the breaking Sean Barry, two razor sharp finishes, fifteen seconds apart, from Darius Pliskauskas after Raiders netminder Michael Gray had bounced out rebounds put Phantoms in front just 71 seconds later. Tom Norton then showed superb reactions to fire away another Gray rebound from the angle to secure a two goal lead going into the first break.
Any uplifting team talk from the Raiders in the period break was put down just 29 seconds into the second period when Owen Griffiths tipped home a Rob Ferrara slapshot and it was 1-5 less than three minutes later when Griffiths again plundered the spoils in front of Gray by skillfully steering a high James Ferrara slapshot through Gray despite halfhearted protests from Raiders that the stick was actually too high.
Period three saw Phantoms settle for holding on to what they had with a resolute rearguard action supported by some sharp saves from Euan King but a late 5on3 double powerplay was too good an opportunity to miss out on and James Ferrara bundled home a sixth goal after Gray bounced out a Nathan Salem effort.
Phantoms MOM went to Owen Griffiths.
As with last weekends potentially awkward fixture at Bracknell, Phantoms served up a ruthlessly efficient performance in hitting Raiders hard early in the game and then controlling any efforts from the home side to respond. In the first thirty minutes of this one, Phantoms slick passing was simply too fast and too good for the Raiders and with bodies crashing the net from all angles, it proved a particularly bad night for the Raiders netminder to repeatedly bounce out offerings.
Darius Pliskauskas, in particular, caught the eye in the opening period and looked razor sharp both with his finishing and with his breakouts from deep and Phantoms fans will be hoping his absence from the final period was of no concern. Defensively, Phantoms matched the industry and aggression of the hosts as they knew they would need to but they will need to tighten up on the periodic lapses in concentration as it is unlikely that Bison will turn down the opportunities that the Raiders forwards failed with in this one.
Across the other side of London, title rivals Bison took advantage of an early middle period meltdown from Swindon netminder Renny Marr to race into a 3-0 lead to ultimately set up a 4-0 win to keep pace with Phantoms. Assuming Bison take the spoils from Bracknell on Sunday and Phantoms win the return with London next Saturday, everything is now set for a huge showdown at Bretton next Sunday with Phantoms needing to beat Bison by two goals to give them the opportunity to win the title the following weekend at home to Streatham.
Game stats HERE