By Frankie Notaro
Peterborough Phantoms
Today the Bristol Honda Pitbulls make the trip to Planet Ice Peterborough to take on the Playoff Champions the Peterborough Phantoms in their first away game in Peterborough this season. This game comes after the first regulation home win for the Pitbulls against the Solway Sharks yesterday evening at the Pound.
Peterborough are going into this game after a huge win in Milton Keynes last night where they skated away with the 2 points from an overtime win. This win was secured by Luke Ferrara with assistance from Laakkonen in an extremely intense game between the two sides. Phantoms are going into today’s game in 6th place within the league standings but have made upsets already this season by securing the two wins against the Lightning so far and have collected 20 points (56% of the points on offer) from 7 wins, 3 overtime wins and 7 overtime loses.
Netminder Hayden Lavigne has had a great 3 game streak after Phantoms had a double header against the Hull Seahawks and then last night’s game against the MK Lightning. In the last 3 games Hayden has faced a total of 106 shots and only conceded 7 goals against two of the top teams competing in the league title chase. Based on the past 3 games, Hayden Lavigne has a save percentage that stands at .934% and is currently averaging 2 goals per game based on his statistics of the last 3 games played.
A strong part of Phantoms’ play recently has come from the partnership between Ferrara, Laakkonen and Hough. This has been a big part of the power play unit and success coming out of Peterborough recently as this line has found its way of gelling and has made an impressive impact on how the team is playing. Cameron Hough has managed to score 5 power play goals leaving Janne Laakkonen scoring twice on the power play and only once for Luke Ferrara. The power play unit this season so far in the 17 games they have completed has been 23% effective as they have been able to score 18 goals with an extra skater advantage.
The penalty kill unit for the Phantoms right now stands at 72% effective after them being short-handed through 64 times in the 17 games they have completed. The Phantoms have been unable to get a short-handed goal so far this season but have had a short-handed goal scored against them at some point during the games that have been completed.
A total of 64 goals have been scored against the Phantoms’ netminders this season from around 619 shots against them. Then on the other side, Peterborough have been able to score 63 goals while having roughly 522 shots on goal against opposing netminders across the league.
Going into this game, one to watch when playing against the Phantoms will be Cameron Hough. Already in the 17 games he is the top point scorer for Peterborough as he has managed to secure 27 points from 16 goals and 11 assists so far. He is a big part of Peterborough’s game when it comes to finishing an opportunity he has found himself with, whether that’s one created by him or his teammates. By limiting Cameron’s access to the puck and restricting his opportunities on the night, it will have a direct link to how well Peterborough plays offensively tonight. One more one to watch in this game against the Phantoms will be Tom Norton who fills the role of a versatile defensemen incredibly as he has the ability to one minute play and extremely defensive and shutdown style of hockey to then being able to transition into a more offensive defensemen when he is placed near the blueline and during power play opportunities.
