But Lightning bounced back in style on Sunday to crush Sheffield Scimitars 4-1 on the road with a superb performance.

Missing injured Ales Parez and Toni Alasaarela who had flown home for the birth of his son Lightning looked a shadow of the side which had done so well in their opening eight games of the season when they took on Cheiftains.

The hosts were slow out of the blocks and the line changes necessitated by the absence of Alasaarela and Parez resulted in a few penetrating offensive moves by Lightning early on.

It was Chelmsford who shocked the home crowd when, with Michael Timms in the sin bin for hooking, they scored the opening goal short handed. A turn over in the neutral zone saw Ratislav Palov blast high into the net on 3mins 6secs.

Chieftains' Tom Long got his marching orders before the four minute mark as he was given a game misconduct following a slashing call.

But Lightning were unable to make anything of the resulting penalty. They were then made to pay as, first Nick Poole, and then Dan Croft went to the penalty box in quick succession on hooking and cross-checking calls. With a five on three advantage Kaupo Kaljuste fired in from the blue line and Euan Forsyth got the final touch to beat goalie Barry Hollyhead at 8mins 5secs.

Lightning gave themselves hope of a revival in the final minute of the period when Aidan Mahmud sent Kurt Irvine away up the right and his cross was met by Gary Clarke who rounded the netminder, Mike Robinson, before planting the puck over the line at 19mins 13secs.

As the second period went on Lightning looked to be getting back in the game and they were able to equalise when Adam Carr fired goalwards only for the puck to come back off the boards behind the goal to Clarke to find a gap to Robinson's right at 35mins 29secs.

The hosts then went in front as Nick Poole fed Ross Bowers from a face off and the young Brit's shot beat Robinson at 35mins 42secs.

If home fans thought normal business had been resumed then Chelmsford had other ideas as they stemmed the home side's charge in the early part of the third period before levelling through Kaljuste from the blue line at 49mins 2secs.

With five minutes 39 seconds remaining Hollyhead was beaten again by a high shot from the left by Chris Goddard.

This time Lightning were unable to find an answer although a Clarke shot was spilled to Adam Radmall only for Robinson to get a glove to his effort.

Hollyhead was taken off with 28 seconds left but still with the extra skater Lighting could not get past the Chelmsford defence.

On Sunday Parez returned for Lightning as the city side faced a difficult visit to Sheffield Scimitars.

Their prospects were not helped when Mikko Skinnari was ejected from the game for a check from behind on Robert Dowd – resulting in a lengthy delay to the game.

However with the scores tied at 0-0 at the first break there was still all to play for in the second period and it was Lightning who went infront through Grant McPherson with Adam Radmall doubling the advantage 20 seconds from the second break.

The result was put almost beyond doubt as Parez struck for goal number three in the first minute of the final session before Dowd got one back for Scimitars at 43mins 23secs.

Any hope that Scimitars had of a comeback were snuffed out when Clarke netted Lightning's fourth goal on 56mins 59secs before a final minute penalty on Peter Slamiar saw the hosts end the game a man short.

Lightning v Chieftains statistics:

Lightning scorers: Gary Clarke 2+0; Ross Bowers 1+0; Adam Carr 0+2; Kurt Irvine 0+1; Mikko Skinnari 0+1; Nick Poole 0+1.

Chieftains scorers: Euan Forsyth 1+2; Ratislav Palov 1+1; Kaupo Kaljuste 1+0; Chris Goddard 1+0; Mikko Mattila 0+3.

Shots on goal: On Barry Hollyhead 30/4
On Mike Robinson 33/3

Scimitars v Lightning statistics:

Lightning scorers: Ales Parez 1+1; Gary Clarke 1+1; Grant McPherson 1+0; Adam Radmall 1+0; Matt Towalski 0+1; Michael Wales 0+1; Nick Poole 0+1; Greg Randall 0+1.

Scimitars scorers: Rob Dowd 1+0; Simon Butterworth 0+1.

Shots on goal: On Barry Hollyhead 32/1
On Pasi Raitanen 24/4