Shropshire Star

Telford Tigers’ win comes with a silver lining

Tigers enjoyed a perfect Saturday night, beating big rivals Peterborough Phantoms 6-4 and seeing second-placed Milton Keynes losing, which saw them open a gap at the top of the table.

Published

Jason Silverthorn and man of the match Brandon Whistle led the way with two goals in the NIHL National League win, while Ollie Lord, and Dominik Florian also got on the scoresheet.

And the importance of the win was not lost on head coach Tom Watkins, who said: “It was a big win.

“I was pretty anxious going in tonight’s game as I felt it was a pivotal game for us against a team who have been on fire lately and have put a very impressive run together.

“I asked the team to bring a winning mentality and they did just that. The game was very close, very tight all night, we saw two very well matched teams that played hard at both ends of the rink.

“We took our chances well in those key moments and defended with commitment. I thought the officiating was first class, the referees let the two teams play and that impacted on the game in the right way.”

Phantoms came into the game on an 11-game winning streak but it was Tigers who took the lead. Good work by Scott McKenzie and Brandon Whistle led to the puck being recycled to the Peterborough blue line where Ollie Lord hammered a low shot that flew into the bottom corner. Peterborough levelled soon after when Petr Stepanek shot was too powerful for netminder Brad Day.

Peterborough took the lead early in the second period, but Tigers responded with a sensation goal just over a minute later – Whistle skated round the Peterborough defence then in on goal and lifted the puck over Marr into the roof of the net.

Tigers retook the lead through Whistle who hit a superb wrist shot past Marr. Peterborough replied within a minute to level the game once again at 3-3 but five minutes from the end of the period, Tigers scored a fourth goal when Whistle’s shot rebounded off Marr allowing the perfectly positioned Dominik Florian to deflect the puck home.

Peterborough refused to back down and levelled again at 4-4 and, with both sets of fans roaring their team on, it would be the Tigers’ fans who celebrated next. Ricky Plant won a centre ice puck battle and passed the puck to Tigers captain Silverthorn who put Tigers ahead 5-4 before Silverthorn slid the puck into the empty net to seal the victory.

n Tigers held a minute’s silence for young linesman Haris Hussain who died recently.

Watkins said: “It is such a sad loss of a young guy at just 19 years of age, it puts it all into perspective.

“All of our thoughts and best wishes go to his family and friends.”