Season Review

Our opponents on Saturday are the Peterborough Phantoms, they are coming into the play-offs after a tough regular season by their very own high standards. The Phantoms finished in 6th place in the NIHL National this year, they finished on 52 points which was 7 points clear of 7th place, Basingstoke, and just 2 points behind their rivals the MK Lightning.

Despite their low finish in the league, Peterborough did boast one of the best defences in the NIHL, they only conceded 160 goals which gave them the 3rd best defence. Their problems came at the other end of the ice, the Phantoms were only able to score the 5th most goals in the league with a total of 173.

This year was also not anything to write home about in the two cup competitions that Peterborough competed in. The team started off their season in the Autumn Cup but they could only finish 5th in the league stage and missed out on a place in the semi-finals. When the league season began teams also competed in the NIHL Cup alongside their league fixtures and the Phantoms suffered the same fate as in the earlier cup competition, they only managed a 5th place finish again in the league phase.

There were some notable performances from the Phantoms players, the scoring charts were led by young forward Glenn Billing who is developing himself into one of the best forwards in the league. He was followed by veteran forward Ales Padelek who at the age of 42 is defying father time and still putting up points, he was only 2 points behind Billing’s total of 63. Finally in 3rd place was a Phantoms debutant this season, Duncan Speirs made the move down from Scotland and put up 55 points for his team, he was also Peterborough’s leading goal scorer with 29 goals this year.

In net the Phantoms were once more backstopped by Jordan Marr and he had yet another good season between the pipes. In 42 games played he posted a save percentage of 90.2% and a goals against average of 3.05, these figures were enough to earn him 4th place in the goaltender rankings in the NIHL come the end of the regular season.

 

Playoffs Preview

And so, we now move into the play-offs, the Phantoms come into the play-off round robin as the 6th overall seed and 3rd best ranked team in their group which contains our very own Swindon Wildcats, Sheffield Steeldogs and Basingstoke Bison. Their record against these teams is mixed, they have a losing record against the top two sides in the group, Swindon and Sheffield, but hold a winning record against Basingstoke.

Against the Wildcats the Phantoms have managed 2 victories this season, with 4 losses and an overtime loss giving them a 2-4-1 record. Against the Steeldogs the Phantoms have managed 3 victories with 4 losses giving them a record of 3-4-0. Against the Bison the Phantoms have managed 4 victories with 3 losses giving them a record of 4-3-0.

With the records listed above I think this play-off series will be a tough one for Peterborough but with their record against Sheffield and Basingstoke being so close to even anything could happen. If the Phantoms players find form at the right time they could very easily find themselves in the final four at Coventry.