Match Preview – Peterborough Phantoms – By James Handscombe-Buckley
Team News:
Swindon Wildcats – Renny Marr (NM), Dean Skinns (NM), Sam Godfrey, Neil Liddiard, Ben Nethersell, Tyler Plews, Sam Smith, Stevie Whitfield, Edgars Bebris, Sam Bullas, Ollie Endicott, Jack Goodchild, Bailey Hind-Pitcher, Chris Jones, Tomasz Malasinski, Aaron Nell, Balint Pakozdi, Reed Sayers, Emil Svec, Floyd Taylor, Declan Balmer
Peterborough Phantoms – Jordan Marr (NM), Ryan Bainborough (NM), Tom Barry, Bradley Bowering, Callum Buglass, Joseph Gretton, Nathan Long, Tom Norton, Scott Robson, Billy Thorpe, Glenn Billing, Ross Clarke, Morgan Clarke-Pizzo, Jasper Foster, Jarvis Hunt, Luc Johnson, Corey McEwen, Ales Padelek, Nathan Pollard, Duncan Speirs, Will Weldon, Nathan Salem
Club History:
Ice hockey in Peterborough started life off in 1982 under the Peterborough Pirates name and they played in division one under the old British ice hockey structure. In the early years there was some moderate success for the newly formed team, within their first 5 seasons they had already won their league title twice with the last of this pair coming in 1987. However, this early success was not possible to maintain and the next time the Pirates tasted any success wasn’t until 1997 when they won the Christmas Cup, this was a decade long wait for the fans.
At the end of the 2002 season the Pirates team folded and then they were reborn under the name that we know today, the Peterborough Phantoms. When the team formed, they entered the EPL and tasted some immediate success as they won the league title in their first season. The best season in the club’s history came in 2008-09, in this season the team had immense success as they won everything on offer and completed an unprecedented treble that included the league, playoffs and cup championships.
Over the years the Phantoms have always been a good team despite the modest resources that they have at their disposal, they foster a superb team culture and have always had good coaching that has led them to success over the years.
Previous Seasons Performance:
NIHL National – 3rd – GP50 – W31 – L17 – OTL2 – GF227 – GA185 – PTS64
This Seasons Meetings:
02/10/2021 Swindon Wildcats 5-2 Peterborough Phantoms
Previous Meetings:
28/09/2019 Swindon Wildcats 5-0 Peterborough Phantoms
09/11/2019 Swindon Wildcats 8-5 Peterborough Phantoms
17/11/2019 Peterborough Phantoms 6-3 Swindon Wildcats
14/12/2019 Swindon Wildcats 6-4 Peterborough Phantoms
02/02/2020 Peterborough Phantoms 7-6 Swindon Wildcats
23/02/2020 Peterborough Phantoms 4-3 Swindon Wildcats
15/03/2020 Peterborough Phantoms 10-3 Swindon Wildcats
The Coach:
Tonight’s opposing head coach is Slava Koulikov, he was born in Russia in 1978 but moved to the UK as a youngster and he made his way up through the junior ranks in Humberside and then made his senior debut with the Kingston Hawks in 1996 while they played in the Premier League. Koulikov’s playing career was mainly spent playing in Hull and in various league split between the BNL and Elite League.
It was 2012-13 when he took up his first coaching role and this was a player-coach role with the Slough Jets in the EPL, he stayed for two seasons in Slough before moving to the Phantoms and taking up a player-coach role in Peterborough also. It wasn’t until the start of the 2015/16 season that Koulikov made the decision to hang up the skates and concentrate on his coaching duties full time.
This will be the 9th consecutive season that Koulikov will be in charge of the Phantoms and once more his team will be well drilled and tough opposition for anyone who faces them.
In addition to his club duties Koulikov has also been involved with the GB Under 20s programme and after two years as an assistant coach he took over as the head coach in 2017.
