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| Ondra Liebelt scored 4 goals in the Phantoms home win over Riverside Raiders (Photo by Greg Grogan) |
1st June 2025: Riverside Raiders 6 – 9 Flintshire Phantoms 14th June 2025: Flintshire Phantoms 10 – 7 Riverside Raiders
Report by George Perret / Photos by Greg Grogan
The Flintshire Phantoms took both wins in a home-and-away series against old rivals Riverside Raiders.
Phantoms vs. Raiders was the original hot summer rivalry between the Deeside and Widnes rinks. Since the teams first met in 2016, Phantoms had taken eight wins, Raiders two and one game drawn. The teams have only met once since the lockdown, so this month saw the rivalry return with home-and-away games.
Game 1 - Riverside Raiders 6 – 9 Flintshire Phantoms
In the absence of Sterling Steeves through injury, Phantoms brought in veteran defencemen Brian Chalmers on the back line. Raiders had Ben Donkin out through suspension but plenty of speed and skill with Kai Gennoe leading their attack.
The first two periods saw the Phantoms attack enjoying pressure in the Raiders’ zone, with the home team hitting back with speed on the break. The visitors’ early scoring came from the blue line, with Andrew Cooke scoring twice. Raiders answered with a lovely rush goal from Vaantaja. Ex-Raider Sam Plant was one Phantom forward finding a way to score, beating Allatt with a precision snipe, while the Phantoms top line of Coombs, Dallavalle and Liebelt were consistently creating chances with some fluid puck movement.
Phantoms kept the pressure up in the second, with Chalmers, Sheppard and Dallavalle all scoring to extend their lead but the Raiders kept finding ways to answer right back on the break, snatching a couple of quick goals late in the second period to bring the score to 8-6.
The third period saw the visitors take control of the game defensively. Netminder Andy Teece, making his Phantoms debut, stopped all of the Raiders efforts in the final frame, with Emma Dutton scoring the period’s only goal on the power-play to give a final score of 9-6.
Phantoms MVP was defencemen Gareth Jones while netminder Allatt took the honours for Raiders with an outstanding performance.
Game 2 – Flintshire Phantoms 10 – 7 Riverside Raiders
Within a fortnight the teams met again at Deeside. Donkin was back in for the Raiders with Gennoe out and Allatt returning in net. Phantoms swapped Canadians with Geoff Coombs out and captain Ken Valyear returning to the team. They also added Mark Stringfellow for his Phantoms debut, replacing Dallavalle.
The first period was a close affair, with David Meadows opening for Phantoms and Vaantaja answering right back for the Raiders within a minute. Liebelt’s unassisted goal put the Phantoms back in the lead and he looked to have added another only for the referee Fairclough to judge goaltender interference on the play, ending the period at 2-1 Phantoms.
Liebelt picked up where he left off in the second period, adding two more with assists to Valyear and Meadows, while Phantoms second line of Plant, Dutton and Spencer contributed two goals to the team’s total. In response, Raiders’ Vaantaja was showing a real scorer’s touch with David Geroc supplying the assists. But Phantoms were piling pressure onto the Raiders net and Allatt was the one keeping the visitors alive with some heroic multi-save efforts. By the end of the second, Phantoms were ahead by 6-3.
In contrast to game 1 the third period was a wild one, with both teams scoring four times. For the Phantoms, Liebelt claimed his fourth, as did Vaantaja for the Raiders. The visitors sensed a chance to steal the game in the dying minutes and brought themselves within two goals on a delayed penalty, prompting Phantoms to use their time-out to refocus defensively.
This had the desired effect, and the final goal of the game was scored by Mark Stringfellow (on his debut) and assisted by Chalmers settling the score at 10-7 to the home team.
Phantoms MVP went to Mark Stringfellow for a lively debut while Raiders NM Allatt rightly deserved the Raiders title for a second game.
Phantoms are in action next Sunday 22nd when they host the Newcastle Predators, FO 4:30.
