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With both sides being in fine form, the Phantoms knew that this would be a challenging game.
Cardiff started strongly and put some early pressure on the Phantoms. Their efforts payed off as they got a quick opening goal to take the lead. The Phantoms seemed to settle the play and had an impressive 8 shots on the Cardiff netminder in the period. Against the run of play, Cardiff got another goal on the breakaway. The first period ended with Cardiff winning 2-0.
After the break, the Phantoms came out and upped their game. They knew they had to work hard to break down Cardiff and that is what they did!
Whilst on a penalty kill defender Aimee Neaverson combined with captain Hana Meszarosova. Meszarosova sped up and despite Cardiff having more players on the ice, she showed her excellent skating and hockey skills to glide past them all. This made it a 1 on 1 with the netminder. Meszarosova was not going to waste the opportunity she had made for herself and got a goal back for the Phantoms.
After some impressive team defending, Saara Karvonen whilst in the defensive zone, passed to Ruby Allen. Allen with a lot of work still to do, zoomed past the Cardiff defence and fired the puck past the Cardiff netminder. This levelled the scoring and really highlighted the work the Phantoms put in. The second period ended with a level score of 2-2.
Entering into the third and final period, everything was still to play for. Both teams gave it their all and tried to break each other down. Unfortunately with 5 minutes left to go, Cardiff got the goal they were looking for. Despite a great team effort from the Phantoms, they were unable to find the back of the net again.
The game ended 3-2 to Cardiff but Phantoms definitely made a statement about their intentions and showed an incredible work ethic.
Player of the match was captain Hana Meszarosova and spirt of the game was netminder Katie Plumb.
The Phantoms next fixture is away against Solent Amazons on the 25th March.
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