2 0 0 9 - 1 0   S E A S O N

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06/10/09: Defenseman Alex Symonds Released:
Phantoms who have started the season without a league win at six attempts have announced the release of Brit defenseman Alex Symonds (profile) . The club are in talks with a defenseman and forward and are hopeful of adding to their roster.

18/09/09: Lewis Buckman Announces Retirement:
Experienced British forward and last season's Phantoms captain Lewis Buckman (profile) has decided to retire from the sport. Announcing his retirement on the eve of the season the 26 year old cited conflicting demands of hockey and family-life as the reason for his decision. The former Peterborough junior has been playing senior hockey for ten years starting with home-team Pirates and finishing with the Phantoms. In between he had short spells with Basingstoke & Milton Keynes and appeared for Nottingham Panthers. Lewis will continue to play for Phantoms over the next two weekends to enable the club to reshuffle their roster as a consequence of his short-notice departure.

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Click 'ROSTER' above for team roster & bios.

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PhanTV: Phantoms web-tv channel containing interviews with players, coaches etc.

Local Press Reports (Link to Peterborough Evening Telegraph pages)

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Season Format & Rule Changes

Format: Each teams League schedule comprises 54 matches (3 home and 3 away against each team).

The Premier Cup will start as an 18 game single group round. The first home and away League games between teams will double-up as a Cup match. The top 4 teams in the Cup table will contest the semi-finals comprising two-legged (home and away) matches decided on aggregate score. The Final will be a similar two-legged tie.

For the end of season Play-offs, the top eight placed teams in the league will compete in two-legged (aggregate score) quarter finals played over the weekend of 3rd & 4th April 2010 on the basis:  1st v 8th;  2nd v 7th;  3rd v 6th; and   4th v 5th. The four winning teams will advance to the Play-off finals weekend in Coventry on April 10th and 11th 2010.

Rule Changes

No line change on icing: The team that ices the puck will not be permitted to change players for the ensuing face-off (the opposing team may change as usual). Icing is initiated once the puck is hit, not when the whistle blows - so changes cannot be made whilst the puck is in motion leading to an icing call. A 2 minute bench minor penalty will be assessed to any offending team. Exceptions to this are if a team with six outfield skaters wishes to return a goalie to the game, or the replacement is for an injured player.

No roster replacement for suspended non-British trained player: Any non-British trained player who is suspended cannot be replaced on the game roster with a non-British trained player (ie the team will dress one less non-British trained player for each one that is suspended).

Penalty Shoot-outs Any game level after 60 minutes will go to a five minute period of 4 v 4 sudden death overtime. Matches reamining tied after this will be decided by a penaty shoot-out. The visiting team will start the penalty shootout. Three players from each team will perform a penalty shot with the team scoring most being the winner of the game. If the game is still tied at this point, a ‘sudden death’ penalty shoot-out will occur where penalty shots will be made one-by-one by the remaining team members (not including the original three players who did the first round of penalty shots). No player can be repeated until the entire rostered (dressed) team - excluding net minders - have had a turn.

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Click here for '02-03 to '08-09 EPL Archive Site

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