Goalie Barry Hollyhead will be back between the pipes for Milton Keynes Lightning ice hockey team for a fourth consecutive season.

And he will be joined in the netminding duties by promising youngster, 21-year-old Alex Mettam, who has been recruited from English Premier League rivals Guildford Flames.

Hollyhead, 34 today, was an ever present last year – mainly because Lightning lacked an experienced back-up. He was Lightning's original goalie when the club was founded in 2002 and has been with the club ever since apart from two seasons spent in Telford.

Player coach Nick Poole said: "Last year we ran things a bit close with only one experienced goalie and that put pressure on Barry.

"We did not want to do that again and we feel we have a brought in some great young talent in Alex."

Poole said Mettam will be given the chance to play and he fully expected him to push Hollyhead for the top spot.

He added: "Alex played for two years in a class organisation backstopping Joe Watkins."

Mettam comes with a glowing reference from Flames head coach, Paul Dixon who said he had done an admirable job but was unlikely to get the opportunity to develop his game at the Surrey club.

Meanwhile one name who will not be returning to Lightning next term is defenceman Greg Randall who it is understood did not feature in the club's plans for the new season.

He and his brother, Jamie, who played for Milton Keynes Thunder last season, have signed for Bracknell Bees who have now appointed former Lightning player, Claude Dumas as player coach.

>> A record ten Milton Keynes Storm junior players took part in the EIHA Inter-Conference finals tournament.

John Cawley, Lewis Jobbling, Jake Southwood were in the U11 South West squad where Andrew Pankhurst was a reserve.

Jordan Hedley was goalie for the South West U13s while Tom Mboya featured in the U15s side.

In the U17s Ross Green, Jacob Heron, Glen Trivett and Mitch Starkey were all selected.

The U11s did themselves proud helping the South West to a 5-1 title win over the Midlands while Hedley kept a blank sheet in the U13s 1-0 triumph – also over the Midlands.

The U15s made it into the final but came out on the wrong side of a 2-0 score against the Midlands. The U17s overcame an early loss in the the tournament to finish third.

Hedley and Mboya are now set to attend the EIHA School of Excellence from which the England teams for 2010 will be selected. Hedley is bidding for an U14 place and Mboya one in the U16s.