Seahawks See Disappointment at Home but Points on the Road
Hull Reckitt Seahawks v Peterborough Phantoms – 18/01/2025
A recent run of good form came to a stuttering stop on Saturday for the Hull Reckitt Seahawks as they lost to the Peterborough Phantoms, 4-3, at the Hull Ice Arena.
Victories against the Sheffield Steeldogs, Telford Tigers and the Swindon Wildcats over the past few weeks had fans in buoyant mood at home, but Peterborough demonstrated what happens when you have an off night in the NIHL and brought the Seahawks back down to earth with a bump.
“That’s as bad as we’ve played for a good couple of weeks,” said Head Coach Matty Davies in his post-match interview.
“It’s disappointing because I don’t think we got started tonight, we just weren’t quite at it.
“We gave them way too much space and, when you do that, players like [Cameron] Hough and [Luke] Ferrara will punish you.
“We shouldn’t be allowing any team to put 40 shots on our goal in our rink.
“Tonight, we just haven’t performed like we have done during the past four or five weeks.
“Maybe we went into the game with a little too much confidence and thought that we’d role them over.
“We didn’t dig in enough, like we have with arguably better teams.
“In this league, if you don’t show up, you can become unstuck.”
When it came to the action on the ice, the Seahawks were punished in a first period that was marred by ill-discipline, conceding two goals on the penalty kill.
Peterborough scored their first of the night at 07:40 through Jarvis Hunt, assisted by Janne Laakkonen, while Johnny Corneil took a two-minute tripping penalty.
Frustratingly, the Seahawks didn’t learn their lesson from this as, less than a minute later, Lee Haywood was sent to the box for hooking and the Phantoms converted again, this time via Austin Mitchell-King, assisted by Nathan Salem and Bradley Bowering.
As the first period moved into its final stages, the Seahawks would be presented with a powerplay of their own when Salem was given two minutes for slashing at 15:41.
Czech forward Emil Svec dutifully stepped up to half the deficit for Hull, assisted by Jason Hewitt, and send the teams into the intermission at 2-1.
The second period started better for the Seahawks, with Bobby Chamberlain netting the equalising goal on 23:49, following some intricate passing play between Declan Balmer and Owen Sobchak whose pass teed up the Hull captain.
With the game all square as it headed towards the second period intermission it felt like the match was being set up for a decisive final 20 minutes. However, the Phantoms had other plans and scored their third of the contest with just 14 seconds left on the clock through an effort from Hough, assisted by Ferrara and Bowering.
Things got even better for Peterborough at the start of the third period, when Duncan Speirs extended his side’s lead to two goals, assisted by Salem and Bowering.
The Seahawks did set up a grandstand finish when Chamberlain scored another on the powerplay, at 48:12, as Thomas Palmer sat a two-minute penalty for tripping, with Hull’s skipper squeezing the puck past Hayden Lavigne in the Peterborough goal from a tight angle after Sobchak drove round the back of net and played an inch perfect pass for Chamberlain to finish.
With the game nearing its conclusion, the Seahawks called a timeout and decided to pull Jordan McLaughlin for the extra skater. But, despite throwing everything at the Phantoms, they couldn’t find the leveller.
Disappointed with that result, Davies said that he needed a reaction from his team against Romford on Sunday and believed they could pick up valuable points against the Raiders.
“It is going to be a tough game and it is a long bus journey down there, but I think we play better when we know it is going to be a tough game,” said Davies.
Romford took the lead midway through the first period through Shaun Miller, but the Seahawks hit back to go into the intermission 2-1 up thanks to goals from Bobby Chamberlain and Johnny Corneil.
Hull then extended their lead further in the second period with markers from Lee Bonner and another from Chamberlain, his second of the night on the way to a hat-trick.
Into the third period, the Raiders pulled one back through Tjay Anderson before Chamberlain netted his third of the evening.
Jason Hewitt then rounded out the result for the Seahawks scoring Hull’s sixth of the night at 49:58.
By Mark Bateman