Jets shoot down Lightning with weekend double
Cup hopes extinguished
Slough Jets shot down any lingering hopes Milton Keynes Lightning had of qualifying for the knockout stages of the English Premier League Cup as they inflicted two defeats on the city side at the weekend.
Lightning's ambitions of a top four spot in the cup league table – and with it a semi final place – were extinguished after fireman Nicky Chinn put a dampener on Lukas Zatopek's opening goal after just 2mins 35secs on Saturday.
Chinn's strike to level the game in the eighth minute was followed by a Scott Spearing goal at 18mins 43secs with Lightning's chances of a comeback all but wrecked by a Joe Ciccarello goal 26 seconds later to give Jets a 3-1 advantage at the first break.
The second session got even worse for the visitors as Steve Moria fired past goalie Barry Hollyhead after 31mins 47secs and then Ciccarello added Jets' fifth goal – shorthanded – at 37mins 2secs.
Lightning tried to up the pressure in the final period and outshot the hosts but it was to no avail.
The following day in the return match at Planet Ice that man Chinn was again responsible for Jets first goal on 18mins 43secs on a powerplay – this time Lightning had not had the luxury of an early goal.
The strike came after Zatopek had been penalised for slashing with Chinn tipping in a long shot from Tony Redmond on the blue line.
Nick Poole went close in the opening minute of the second session with the puck scrambled away from the Jets goal.
But that was as good as it got for Lightning at that stage before a penalty call on Kevin Phillips for hooking Gary Clarke gave the home side a powerplay.
However they were turned over while in the offensive zone and Joe Ciccarello and Steve Moria went on a two man rush with Adam Radmall unable to beat both men. Ciccarello provided the pass for veteran Moria to shoot past Hollyhead on 25mins 43secs for a short handed goal.
That seemed to knock the stuffing out of Lightning and for much of the rest of the period they seemed to allow Jets to push them further and further away from the offensive zone.
Things then got even worse with Michael Bowman's pass from the left being turned in by Lewis Burke for Jets' third at 35mins 9secs.
There was a quick response from Lightning though with Greg Randall, switched from defence to forward to cover for the injured Ales Parez, making the pass for Poole to fire high into the net at 36mins 5secs.
It was vital Lightning scored early in the third period and that they did when quick witted Matt Towalski smashed in Grant McPherson's behind the net pass at 42mins 45secs.
Exactly three minutes later man of the match Towalski got his second from an Adam Carr set up to find a gap to the left of netminder Dean Skinns and tie the game up.
But when Michael Wales was given two minutes for charging Jets seized the opportunity to retake the lead on the powerplay – Chinn the supplier for Moria at the right pipe who was able to lift the puck over the diving Hollyhead at 52mins 18secs.
Almost inevitably Lightning withdrew Hollyhead for the extra skater with 1mins 8secs to go and – after a timeout by the hosts – Jets managed to get the puck out of their defensive zone for Blaz Emersic to score on an empty net from just over his halfway line at 59mins 26secs for a 5-3 final score.
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Weather for Milton Keynes
Thursday 24 May 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: 11 C to 25 C
Wind Speed: 13 mph
Wind direction: North east
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 10 C to 22 C
Wind Speed: 22 mph
Wind direction: East
