Telford Tigers’ play-off ambitions received a blow last night, when they lost 5-1 to Peterborough Phantoms.
Defeat at Bretton Road means Telford face a tense weekend before finding out if they will finish in the EPL’s top four – and potentially, receive an easier passage in the end-of-season tournament.
Tigers head coach, Tom Watkins, praised his side’s work rate – including that of NIHL youngsters Corey Goodison, Brad Betteridge and Joe Aston – but ultimately felt they should have given Peterborough a bigger test.
He said: “We could have done better, but this is always a tough place to come. A few bad habits seemed to creep in and I don’t think we earned our bounces or luck.
“The guys won some good battles and kept on pushing in the third period, but they just ran out of gas in the end.
“If you’re playing a side that is shorthanded, then you’ll always try to put them under pressure and that’s what Peterborough did.
“The guys that we’re missing are some of our top end guys, who show that awareness on the puck. If you put a team under pressure, you create mistakes and create scoring chances.”
Last night’s first period saw Telford fall two goals behind after just ten minutes, as Peterborough made the most of a frantic opening session.
The second of those strikes came on the powerplay, despite The Tigers placing Phantoms netminder Janis Auzins under heavy pressure.
But Telford finally found a breakthrough on 13 minutes, when Danny Rose scored with a deflected shot from the blue line.
A string of penalties in the second session muted The Tigers’ efforts to draw level, giving Peterborough the chance to go 3-1 ahead on 27 minutes.
Tom Watkins’ men fared little better at the start of the final session, as Peterborough extended their lead to 4-1.
And the visitors were unable to find a way through during the remainder of the period, before Peterborough closed the scoring on 59 minutes.
Watkins added: “The young guys we brought up from the NIHL team had a few shifts and did well. They put in some good hits and created a power play for us.
“They had the chance to take an offensive face-off towards the end and did a good job on that.”
The Tigers are back in action this weekend, for the final set of games before the play-offs.
They travel to face Bracknell Bees on Saturday, before Sunday’s visit of Swindon Wildcats to Telford Ice Rink at 6pm.