Phantoms [NIHL2) went down 2-7 to champions elect Chelmsford Chieftains at Bretton on Saturday evening but the scoreline is unlikely to raise as many eyebrows as the 188 minutes in penalties that were handed out ….. that’s more than three hours of penalties in a one hour game !
When the opposition team hosts infamous NIHL2 bad boy brothers from the Bartlett and Phillips families then you are in-effect popping in the local boozer to share a shandy with the Kray Twins and their associates ….. it may be pleasant at first but you just know it is going to kick off and kick off big time at some point !
New import signing from Bracknell Bees, David Millner, opened his Chieftains account with just 3:40 on the clock after which it all got, as John Cleese would say, slightly silly. That silliness left Chieftains playing most of the remainder of the period shorthanded.
A regulation roughing call gave Phantoms their first powerplay of the night at 6:48 and 18 seconds later, James Pentecost tied the game with an unassisted marker that resulted in Charlie Phillips registering his displeasure with a spearing that saw him ejected on a Match penalty. Chieftains picked up a delay of game call just 44 seconds later and an interference call just 36 seconds after that. With the visitors penalty box now totally overloaded, Phantoms had an extended 5on3 advantage during which Clint Herring put the home side ahead but they failed to really hammer home their advantage by the time the game returned to 5on5 and were, in turn, punished by a Grant Bartlett powerplay marker at 16:18 to tie the game at 2-2.
The first period then exploded at 19:34 with first Elliot Dervish going toe-to-toe with Phantoms Jordan Liddell for regulation double-minors at 18:24 and then the main bout or bouts as the Bartlett brothers supported by Charlie Phillips (who had already been thrown out several minutes earlier !!!) went on a lop-sided tag-team rampage with Jack Sansby and Clint Herring in a clash that spilled onto the benches afterwards. Both Phantoms went for double-minors but the instigating Cameron Bartlett and Charlie Phillips went for Match penalties along with a double minor for Grant Bartlett and minor calls for both benches for good measure !
In relative terms, the middle period was a lot calmer with Chieftains focusing on trying to pull away from a very determined Phantoms side but, despite a 19-5 shots on goal advantage, the visitors were only able to register a single marker via a Brad Moore powerplay goal at 26:55.
The final period saw Phantoms resistance broken early as Grant Bartlett made it 2-4 at 41:22 and David Millner then killing the game at 48:10 for 2-5. The final ten minutes was littered with minor calls on both sides who took three calls each and in amongst the mess, Chieftains extended away with a shorthanded marker from James Ayling at 56:58 and a powerplay and hat-trick goal from Millner at 58:46.
In fitting with the general carnage on offer, Phantoms netminder Dan Lane then took a Match penalty after the final buzzer for making an obscene gesture !
Phantoms will be back in action on Saturday 29th December when they visit Basingstoke, face-off 5:30pm.
Game stats HERE