Telford Tigers Plant the seeds of growth
Telford Tigers finally showed their potential with a dominant 5-2 victory over fellow play-off chasers Peterborough Phantoms.
Saturday night's victory was a winning return for Ricky Plant, who received late clearance to play after his arrival from Guildford Flames.
Plant was involved in two of the Tigers goals – continuing his season-long scoring run. Results elsewhere in the EPL mean Telford are now just three points adrift of ninth-placed Peterborough in the play-off pursuit.
Assistant Coach Karl Creamer took charge of the Tigers bench, with head coach Tom Watkins on GB Under-20s duty. And Creamer believes the win could provide a spark for the rest of the season.
He said: "We have got new players coming in all the time, but tonight was a great game for the lads.
"We were two goals down, but to score five unanswered goals is what we want to see week in, week out. We showed our true character, grit and a lot of determination."
The turning point of the game came at the start of the second period, as Creamer reunited the pairing of Miika Kiviranta and Timo Kuuluvainen. They had started the match on separate lines, but with Telford 2-0 down at that point, the duo helped to stage a remarkable comeback.
Creamer added: "We knew at the end of the first period that we needed to go to Plan B.
"It's not that Plan A wasn't working, but we were two goals down and struggling. Thankfully, the change worked really well for us.
"But tonight was about the whole team. In the second and third periods, every player was fantastic."
Telford's goals came from Kuuluvainen (2), Kiviranta, Jaroslav Kruzik and Marcus Maynard. The Tigers will prepare this week for a tough set of games against Sheffield Steeldogs next weekend.
