Lightning hit top spot after great weekend
Maximum points edge city side ahead of rivals
Milton Keynes Lightning have gone top of the English Premier League after another superb maximum points weekend.
With rivals Guildford Flames and Peterborough Phantoms dropping two points Lightning have edged one point clear of both of them although the Cambridgeshire side still have two games in hand.
However the title is still anybody's to take with all three frontrunners facing some massive games in the coming weeks. And Lightning will have none easier than Saturday's 10-1 rout of Wightlink Raiders while also taking the points in a 4-1 win at Telford Tigers on Sunday.
On Saturday Adam Carr scored one of the of quickest goals – if not the fastest – in Lightning history when he banged in a Gary Clarke rebound after just seven seconds against Wightlink at Planet Ice. Raiders goalie Toby Cooley perhaps hadn't realised the game had started!
That goal meant Wightlink were unable to adopt the dull defensive tactics which had earned them a 3-2 win on their first visit to Milton Keynes earlier in the season.
The problem for them was that they couldn't offer much threat upfront either with just three shots on goalie Barry Hollyhead in the first period compared with 23 for the hosts.
Almost inevitably it did not take too long for Cooley to crack again when Grant McPherson robbed a Raiders man and rounded Cooley before slotting in at 9mins 4secs. Fifty seconds later it was 3-0 when Joakim Wiklander set up Gary Clarke for an upstairs shot high into the net.
If the game was not over as a contest then it certainly was when Wiklander seized on a loose puck after a Greg Randall shot on the powerplay at 17mins 44secs.
Lightning had to a defend the remaining 90 seconds of a penalty going into the second session but even then Wightlink – team play having gone out of the window – failed to make an impression.
It was not surprising then that Lightning added to their tally on 31mins 1sec when Nick Poole fired in after an Andre Smulter blast had sent Yousef Abu Saada crashing to the ice. The only surprise was that referee Dave Goodwin had not stopped play with the Raiders man obviously hurt.
Once again the next goal came swiftly – 41 seconds elapsing before Smulter shot high into the goal to make it 6-0.
If Raiders thought Lightning were going to take it easy in the third period they were soon put right as an amazing Smulter pass from defence reached Michael Wales who sped away to beat Cooley again at 41mins 18secs.
Yet again Raiders capitulated within seconds for goal number eight with Poole hitting his second goal at 41mins 47secs.
With the game threatening to become tedious James Archer and Janne Saarenpaa decided to liven things up with a little, gloves off, scrap. And Wightlink couldn't even win that one either – with Archer quickly pinning his man to the floor.
However it did put a momentary spark into the visitors game, resulting in their only goal at 42mins 40secs through Juraj Rusic.
But it was brief respite as Smulter's shot somehow found its way into the net at 47mins 26secs and Poole earned a well deserved man of the match award when he danced his way through the defence to score the 10th goal on the powerplay at 51mins 46secs.
The next day at Telford the city team were held to a 0-0 score at the first break and then fell behind to a Claude Dumas breakaway goal on 25mins 5secs – against the run of play.
However it did not take Lightning long to get back on terms as Poole set up Clarke to score at 27mins 17secs and Adam Carr was provider for Wiklander on 28mins 59secs – prompting wild celebrations from the Swede.
Smulter then added the third goal at 31mins 48secs to give Lightning a reasonable cushion going into the second break.
Lightning had to defend a five on three short-handed spell at the start of the third session but having done so they went to score a fourth goal through Carr at 47mins 27secs when the team were on the powerplay.
From then on Telford never really looked like making a comeback as the visitors closed the game out.
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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
