Having won eight of their opening 10 games - five of them after overtime - to climb to third in the table, they were brought back down to earth with a bump by Telford on Saturday.

Tjay Anderson gave them a third-minute lead against the Tigers at their Sapphire Ice & Leisure Centre home, but the visitors hit back to lead 2-1 at the first break.

And they netted four powerplay goals in the middle session to move 7-1 up, before Leo Bacallao stopped the rot with a second Romford goal.

Having replaced starting goalie Cole Ceci following the sixth Telford goal, Owen Rider was beaten for a second time before the 40-minute mark.

And although Barret Kirwin - wearing a full visor - grabbed a third for the hosts at the start of the final period, any hopes of an unlikely comeback were soon dashed as Telford went 9-3 up less than three minutes later.

The scoreline remained unchanged in the final 16 minutes of the match, but Raiders saw Louie White ejected with a 5+game penalty for fighting after instigating a tussle with Taylor Stanton.

That ruled the young British forward out of Sunday's match at lowly Peterborough, but Jarrett Baker fired Raiders into the lead with barely two minutes on the clock.

They had to kill off minor penalties against Anderson, Joe Tomalin and Kirwin, before missing out on a couple of powerplay opportunities of their own.

But Raiders went 2-0 up just 37 seconds into the middle session when Jake Sylvester maintained his good scoring form with his xth goal of the campaign.

Phantoms answered soon after, but Raiders survived a slashing penalty against Stanley Johnston and went 3-1 up as defenceman Max Lewis opened his account for the season.

And although Adam Berg bagged his second goal of the night for the hosts with only two ticks left on the clock, it was 4-2 in the 46th minute when Dawson Osborn found the net.

Raiders could not hold on to their advantage, though, as Phantoms cut the gap to one with seven minutes to go, then saw Berg complete his hat-trick.

And the visitors were then hit by a double minor penalty against Nojus Venskutonis for high-sticking, which carried into the five-minute overtime period.

And although they just about managed to survive that spell, they saw Janne Laakkonen seal a 5-4 win for Peterborough just seconds after Raiders had seen Venskutonis return to the ice.

Phantoms were due to visit on Wednesday, with Raiders due to travel to Basingstoke on Saturday and then host the Bison in a quick return on Sunday (5.15pm).

*Romford Buccaneers suffered another pair of defeats at the weekend.

They were blanked 6-0 at Slough in a cup fixture on Saturday, then fell to a home loss in a bad-tempered Division One South encounter with Streatham the following night.

They trailed after just 17 seconds and conceded again at 1.37, but Leo De Souza hit back with a powerplay goal in the fourth minute.

Buccs went 3-1 down early in the middle period, but Riley Joyce cut the gap to one just past the midway point of the match, before tempers boiled over with seven seconds left on the clock.

Goalies Rider and Brett Shepherd traded blows at centre ice and were ejected with 5+game penalties, with Streatham going 4-2 up just before the buzzer.

The visitors netted a shorthanded fifth with just over five minutes to play and, after Oliver Cooper had replied for Buccs, sealed a 6-3 win with an empty-net goal in the closing seconds.

Buccs visit Invicta Dynamos for a cup tie on Sunday (5.45pm).