In Town Tonight – Peterborough Phantoms
The visitors to the Link Centre tonight are the Peterborough Phantoms and this is the first time we’ll face them in the league after the Wildcats won the previous home game in the Autumn Cup, 5-2, back in October.
The Phantoms are once more coached by their longstanding head coach, Slava Koulikov, and one thing that is always true about his teams is that they are well coached and will always work incredibly hard for each other.
In net Peterborough have retained the same duo that did them so well in the previous campaign, Jordan Marr is once more the starter in goal and he will be ably backed up by Ryan Bainborough. This is a strong pairing that will serve as a solid base for the Phantoms to be successful in this upcoming season.
In the import slots this year the Phantoms have decided to go with just the single import this season and it is a player well known in Peterborough and to British shores in general. Ales Padelek is back for his 6th consecutive season with the Phantoms and 7th in the UK, he brings with him considerable experience attained at a high level in his native Czech Republic and despite his advancing years his skill level should more than help carry him in the league this season.
On defence they have made several key signings and all of them are returnees which should be a real boost to the team ethic and defensive unit of the Phantoms as all players are already used to one another and there is no bedding in period needed. The key players coming back are Callum Buglass, Tom Norton, Scott Robson and Nathan Long; with this as the core of the Peterborough blueline they will be a tough team to break down for any team in the NIHL this year.
This season the team will be led by a new captain, long serving captain James Ferrara has retired and he has been replaced by Will Weldon who has been rewarded for his long-time service in Peterborough. Joining Weldon will be two very important forwards who will be looked to in order to provide the key offensive output of this team; both Glenn Billing and Corey McEwen are back in Peterborough for another season.
There have been two new signings who will hopefully have an impact for the Phantoms this year; one of them is a familiar face to the Wildcats faithful as Luc Johnson has joined Peterborough after several seasons in Swindon and the other is Duncan Speirs who impressed massively during his one season in the NIHL with the Sheffield Steeldogs.
With some injury troubles and poor league performance the Phantoms made the move to bring in Nathan Salem to try and boost their ailing offence for the rest of the season.
Overall, the Peterborough roster may not look spectacular on paper but as is always the case this never plays out on the ice as the Phantoms will present a very tough test to any team they face and will be up the top end of the league come the end of the season in the Spring.
