Telford Tigers hit back to boost their title bid

Victory at Telford Ice Rink followed a similarly dramatic 4-2 victory against Basingstoke Bison.

Those results mean the Tigers are now eight points clear of second-placed Milton Keynes at the top of the English Premier League.

Tigers coach Tom Watkins highlighted a flashpoint at the end of the second period on Sunday, when both team lost players to penalties, as a key moment.

He said: "I think we were a little frustrated at that point and we'd had a couple of guys get run over, so I told the guys to stand up for themselves, or they'll carry on doing that.

"We know Sam Zajac will back his team-mates up all day long and he jumped straight in there. Little things like that make a big difference to the mentality of a game.

"We came out four on four, then got a goal pretty quickly. It's just about doing those little things well.

"I felt during the first and second periods, and I said the same Saturday night, that when a team comes at us, we kind of forget where we are a little bit.

"But we got back on the same page and I thought we played the third period really well, as we did on Saturday. We were exceptional."

But the Tigers didn't have it all their own way at the start of the game, after Peterborough took the lead through Alex Padelek after just three minutes.

Telford hit back with a Sam Oakford goal four minutes later, but the Phantoms appeared to have the better running.

And the visitors regained the lead on 26 minutes, thanks to Thomas Stubley, before Martin Susters added a third at the halfway point of the game.

A powerplay strike from Doug Clarkson on 36 minutes appeared to give Telford a lift, before proceedings threatened to boil over at the end of the session.

The resulting fight ended with both sides having four men at the start of the third period – and it was the Tigers who capitalised with Clarkson's second goal of the night, just after the restart.

Rick Plant added a fourth for the hosts with 10 minutes remaining, before Milan Kolena rounded off the scoring just two minutes later.

Watkins added: "Peterborough played really well and came at us pretty hard. That kept us on our heels and we kind of fell into mismanaging the puck.

"I thought our powerplay goal in the second period was huge and came just at the right time. It got us going and gave us a good lift. It was another come from behind win and championships are built on teams with character. We've got a lot of that in this team."

The Tigers are back in action when they welcome Hull Pirates to Telford Ice Rink. For tickets, go to www.tigershockeyuk.com.