Never can the Bretton rink have ever witnessed a superb and well deserved victory greeted by such misery and frustration as Phantoms had their title winning two goal victory snatched from them by a late Bison goal. It is far from all over and the title challenge will run to another big game next Saturday but Phantoms came so close to sealing the deal tonight !
The fans lived up to their pledges to be there and they were there as the rink saw its biggest crowd for several seasons and Phantoms certainly delivered their side of the deal with a performance full of energy, passion and quality.
Bison arrived without influential import playmaker Roman Malinik who was understandably missing after losing his mother during the week so the stage was set for Phantoms to take the game to Bison which they did from the start. The tempo was high, the hits were everywhere and the fans were loving it but Bison are a well organised side and were playing their part in a lively end-to-end opening.
The visitors survived a Phantoms powerplay on 7:18 but then immediately dropped another man just 12 seconds after resuming even-handed play and this time Phantoms pounced. The puck was cycled back to Darius Pliskauskas and his wristshot was deflected home by Glenn Billing in front to send the home crowd into raptures. Phantoms then spent much of the remainder of the period shorthanded but the penalty kill unit were superb in keeping it 1-0 at the break.
Period two saw Phantoms off to the perfect start and with fans still returning to their seats, Nathan Salem squeezed one home from the narrowest of angles for the two goal lead that Phantoms needed. The goal seemed to rock Bison who were suddenly chasing shadows as Phantoms poured it on in search of the insurance marker but then the game turned and it, sadly, turned courtesy of the referee who having let a very physical game flow pretty well, suddenly decided to start calling what seemed rather innocuous infringements.
First Owen Griffiths was called for slashing and then, just 22 seconds later, Rob Ferrara was harshly called for tripping. Glenn Billing then showed his frustration by slapping the plexi with his stick and he took a 10 minute misconduct leaving Phantoms 3on5 and a key player down and all in the space of 22 seconds !
A quality side like Bison will always punish you 5on3 and the only question was whether they would grab two goals. Credit to Phantoms, they didn’t but they did scramble one home for 2-1. This time it was Phantoms evidently rocked by the goal as the momentum shifted for a period of time to the visitors but the score stayed 2-1 at the second break and it was still a decent position for Phantoms to be in with a traditionally strong final period to come.
Phantoms had to pour it on in the last and they did just that but they couldn’t break down a typically tenacious and well organised Bison D. Having failed on an earlier powerplay, a boarding call on Josh Smith gave Phantoms a second bite and this time they took their chance. A fired up Nathan Salem powered in from wide and attempted to ram the puck home on the near post, Skinns blocked but the loose puck was poked home by Glenn Billing to spark wild celebrations as Phantoms regained the two goal lead with just 9:38 to go on the game.
Phantoms had a crucial powerplay opportunity at 54:54 but, to their credit, an increasingly desperate Bison looked the more likely to score and coach Koulikov called a timeout as soon as the game returned to even play. The message was presumably to set up to hold what we had but Bison were in no mood to be held back and a goalmouth scramble saw Aaron Connolly whip home a loose puck with just 1:55 left on the clock …… wild celebrations in the Away Block, total disbelief elsewhere.
Phantoms came desperately close to grabbing another but Bison held on and at the buzzer, Phantoms had won ….. but so had Bison !
I would normally throw around a few criticisms and a few “if onlys” at this point but in all truth I can’t. Phantoms did everything right tonight and they played the game the right way and they probably did enough to get the reward they wanted but it would be wrong to call Bison lucky because they had chances too and they played a great part in a great game. In fact, the perfect result aside, this was every bit the fantastic game and fantastic night that we wanted. This is proper hockey and nobody there tonight would have walked away without a feeling of real satisfaction in the entertainment served up even if the result was not perfect.
Tonight’s result will now mean the two sides will finish level barring a freak result next weekend and the title will go to the team with the best goal difference. At the moment, Phantoms are +6 ahead of Bison so next Saturday’s home game with Streatham needs to be a full-on goalfest in the hope that it will set a target that Bison won’t be able to beat in their games with Invicta and Cardiff, both of whom have good netminders so …… dare to dream here !
So frustrating but what a great hockey night !
Game stats HERE