Milton Keynes Lightning moved three points clear of Slough Jets in third place in the English Premier League after bagging another three points in their march up the table.

Lightning have two games in hand on Jets and two on Guildford Flames who occupy second spot with three more points than the city side.

Nick Poole's side were made to battle hard on Saturday but eventually ended 6-3 victors over an improved Romford Raiders but could not quite repeat the feat on Sunday when Sheffield Scimitars beat them 3-2 on penalties after overtime – the Yorkshire outfit's eighth successive home win.

MK took just 20 seconds to score on the powerplay after Mark Williams – making his latest debut for Raiders after returning from Guildford Flames – was called for hooking at 8mins 39secs.

Gary Clarke played the puck in to Michael Wales and he pushed it on to Joakim Wiklander to poke home at the left post.

When Poole was penalised for hooking in the 15th minute Romford were unable to make anything of the man advntage and nor were Lightning when Jan Krajicek was sent to the sin bin for hooking Matt Towalski. Thus the score remained 1-0 at the first break.

It was not until the 25th minute exactly that the home team were able to increase their tally – nine seconds from the end of a slashing call on Michael Timms. This time Andre Smulter set up Clarke for a blast from the blue line which rocketed into the net.

Joakim Wiklander could have added to the score a minute or so later while Raiders were serving a too many men penalty but goalie Carl Ambler just managed to block his effort.

Lightning then suffered two penalties in quick succession on defencemen Lewis Christie and Lukas Zatopek – giving the visitors a five on three advantage from which Krajicek cut the deficit with a slapshot from the blue line which goalie Barry Hollyhead probably did not see at 32m 1s.

But Zatopek quickly made amends for his penalty – emerging straight form the penalty box to take Towalski's pass and smash it into the goal at 32m 59s.

Lightning were beginning to look comfortable at this stage but Raiders were not finished and Krajicek found Danny Marshall in space to round Hollyhead for their second at 34m 47s during a four on three powerplay.

An error by Ambler allowed Lightning to seize their fourth goal 2m 39s into the third session – the goalie seeming to have the puck in his hand but letting go for Towalski to get the final touch.

It was then Lightning's turn to make a costly mistake when Lewis Christie dallied too long behind his own goal with Scott McKenzie taking the chance to feed Marshall in front of the net and score at 46m 12s.

Ambler was then unable to hold a Clarke shot from ditance as Lightning took a 5-3 lead at 47m 16s – the puck just creeping over the line.

The hosts had the referee, Rene Ross, to thank for their final strike at 47m 58s. Ross got in the way of a clearance from behind Romford's goal and the puck rebounded to Wales who rounded Ambler to fire in.

The following night at Sheffield the home team got the first goal when Joakim Millqvist deked the Lightning defence to score after 11m 6s.

The lead did not last long as Smulter equalised on a powerplay after 14m 10s but Scimitars' coach Ron Shudra just got the puck past Hollyhead in a scramble with 1m 50s remaining on the first period.

That session was ended early when Scimitars' Ben Morgan received a bad facial cut after being taken into the boards by Wales.

The second period produced no further goals with Lightning suffering an injury blow to Adam Radmall who did not ice in the third session.

Lightning finally got an equaliser on 55m 48s when Clarke knocked the puck in at the back post and that signalled a last minute flurry from the visitors, but to no avail and the game went into overtime.

The extra five minutes were also scoreless and so the game went into the dreaded penalty shootout – Lightning again failing to come up with the goods as they lost 2-1 on shots for a 3-2 win to Scimitars.

However the extra point for Lightning could prove vital at the end of the season.