Phantoms bounced back from Saturday’s narrow defeat in Manchester to complete the double over Guildford Flames on Sunday evening.

As is tradition when these two sides meet, the game started at a lively pace with plenty of free-flowing, open hockey and it was Phantoms who grabbed the opener when Brent Gough cleverly fired against the back of the netminders pads with 3:54 on the clock. Having snapped his barren run in front of goal, the popular Phantoms forward was in no mood to hold back and made it 2-0 shortly afterwards with a sharp wristshot that proved too hot to handle and very nearly completed his hat-trick with a one-on-one effort that took the paint off the upright.

Despite dominating their opponants for most of the period, Phantoms were pegged back by two late strikes from Smital and Masa and had to settle for a tied game at the first break.

Period two saw both sides cancel each other out for the most part but chances still arose at both ends with both sides, remarkably, hitting the pipework three times with Gough and Ziedins coming closest for Phantoms.

The final period was a tense affair with both sides going close as they pushed for the go-ahead goal but the breakthrough came from Phantoms as a powerful breakout from James Ferrara turned defence to attack and, with players packed in the zone, Tom Carlon fired a speculative shot from the boards that again seemed to catch the Flames netminder and hit the back of the net with just under ten minutes remaining.

Callum Fowler managed to ping two efforts off the pipework in quick succession shortly afterwards but then it was a case of holding on to what they had for Phantoms as Flames poured forward. Backed by a good home crowd who saw out the last five minutes of the game on their feet and cheering on their team, Phantoms hung tough to see out the game for a much needed and well deserved 3-2 win.

Phantoms are back in home action on Wednesday evening when they take on Basingstoke Bison in the Planet Ice Cup, face-off 7:45pm.