Telford Tigers show they have strength in depth with a win

The Tigers – who had won 5-2 at home to Peterborough in midweek – were 5-3 winners on the Phantoms’ ice on Saturday night.

Jack Watkins, Andy McKinney, Jason Silverthorn, Joe Aston and Corey Goodison were on target for a Telford side missing some key men.

“That’s a really valuable two points,” said Watkins. “We were short staffed and on the road in a really tough rink where pucks take some horrendous bounces at times, but I thought we played really smart, disciplined hockey.

“It was never going to be pretty but I’ll take an ugly road win any day.

“I really liked our commitment all over the ice, we made sure we got pucks out in a hurry and I thought the boys were excellent with their support play.

“We were great along the walls and created goals from some smart puck placement and mentally we were resilient which is a big big plus. It was a real character win.”

Tigers welcomed back Scott McKenzie to the line-up, but were still without Jonathan Weaver and had Austin Mitchell-King, Jack Hopkins and Dan Mitchell also unavailable.

Watkins sent a wrist shot past Jordan Marr in the Peterborough goal to open the scoring five minutes in and they ended the first period two ahead when McKinney slammed the puck home.

A man down due to a trpping penalty in the second penalty, the Tigers still managed to add a third through Silverthorn after being gifted the puck by Marr.

Peterborough got two back, only for Aston to restore Telford’s two-goal lead by the end of the second period.

And though the phantoms got close once more with their third of the night, Goodison sent a ferocious slap shot into the net to secure the 5-3 result.