Phantoms came so close to a huge victory on the road to their main title rivals, leading by two goals going into the final period but a huge effort from a desperate home side snatched victory away from them.
After a tense goalless opening period, Phantoms scored two goals within minutes at the back end of the middle period to lead 0-2 at the second break. Nathan Salem scored the opener and Ales Padelek bundled home a second despite Bison protests that he had interfered with netminder Skinns to score.
Having kept the home side to just twelve shots in the first forty minutes, Phantoms only needed to soak up the inevitable early pressure in the third to bring this one home but a crucial early call on Darius Pliskauskas just 26 seconds into the period set up a Bison powerplay and it was 1-2 and game on.
The early goal gifted the momentum to Bison who wasted no time in tieing the game but, against the run of play, Owen Griffiths pounced on the powerplay to put Phantoms back ahead at 2-3. The game clock ran down to just under 7 minutes to play when Josh Smith tied it up once more and with all the momentum back with Bison, it was Dan Davies who snatched the game winner with just 3:50 to play.
Phantoms MOM was Ales Pedelek.
A bitter blow for Phantoms who will feel it all the more for being two goals up going into the third but they need to stay calm. A victory in the reverse fixture at Bretton will reverse this result and then it will come down to Phantoms and Bison to win their remaining games to decide the title …… and bison still have those two crucial games with Swindon to come !
Swindon, incidentally, remain the league’s form team and will now fancy their chances of catching both Bison and Phantoms but, quite simply, if Phantoms win all their remaining eight games then they will almost certainly take the title …… it all remains in their hands !
Game Stats HERE