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| Simon Soltes was the Connah's Quay MVP in his first game for the Cobras |
Sunday 26th May - Summer Classic Cup: Connah's Quay Cobras 7 - Flintshire Phantoms 8
The Connah’s Quay Cobras lost out by the narrowest of margins to their North Wales rink rivals Flintshire Phantoms in a thrilling and highly entertaining 7-8 Summer Cup defeat at Deeside Leisure Centre on Sunday.
The opening period was cagey and very close and it took until the 11th minute for the deadlock to be broken. First blood went the way of the Phantoms as they scored a delayed penalty goal punishing a slashing penalty call to take the lead. The Cobras fought back and a goal from former Deeside Dragons league player Chris Keating drew them level with 90 second left in the period.
Connah’s Quay took the lead 2 minutes into the second period with a goal form Sam Krempasky – another former Dragon – but the visitors (Flintshire were the “away” team for this game) hit back with two quick goal of their own around the 27 minute mark to retake the lead and then edged further ahead with a powerplay goal on 32 minutes.
Martin Rybka pulled a goal back for the Cobras two minutes later but a further strike late in the period saw the Phantoms take a 3-5 lead into the second interval.
Simon Soltes – a Slovakian student playing his first game for the Cobras - scored early in the third period to narrow the deficit to just one goal but Flintshire hit back 60 seconds later to restore the 2 goal cushion. A powerplay goal on 44 minutes saw the Phantoms go three 3 goals ahead but they were pegged back again by a shorthanded goal scored by Rybka.
A further powerplay goal – their 4th of the game – on 47 minutes extended the Flintshire lead once again and this turned out to be the match winning goal.
Connah’s Quay mounted a late surge – with Keating scoring a powerplay goal on 53 minutes and rounding off his hat-trick with a goal with just 1 second left on the clock – but it wasn’t quite enough and the Phantoms team were able to hang on for the win.
The result sees the Flintshire Phantoms leapfrog the Cobras to take over at the top of the Summer Classic Cup group table with 8 points from their 6 games to date. The Cobras have 7 points from 5 games and the Newcastle Predators are in third place with 6 points from 3 games. The top two finishers in the group will progress to the play off semi finals, which will be held in Sheffield in August, so there is much still to play for.
The Cobras play their next group game this Saturday 1st June when they travel away to play Trafford Thunder at Altrincham Ice rink. They then have the long trip to the North East to face Newcastle on 15th June and are next at home on 14th July when they entertain Trafford in their last match of the qualifying series at Deeside Leisure Centre.
