Lightning's meaningless narrow loss
Milton Keynes Lightning were edged out 4-3 as they completed their English Premier League Cup group games at Guildford Flames on Boxing Day.
However the result mattered little with Lightning already through to the semi final of the competition against Bracknell Bees next month.
Despite that it was a fairly competitive game even though both sides were keen to avoid injuries with a less physical approach.
Grant McPherson set up Nick Poole to put Lightning ahead after 2mins 50secs but Flames drew level when Paul Dixon set up Lukas Smital for a shot to beat goalie David Wride on 10mins 24secs.
Once more though the visitors went in front with Adam Carr scoring from Matt Towalski's pass at 16mins 8secs – just a ahead of the only penalty of the period called on Flames' Ben Austin for elbowing at 17mins 45secs. Lightning were unable to make anything of the powerplay.
The second session saw Flames draw level again when their man of the match Stuart Potts supplied Zavoral to strike at 28mins 53secs. With the clock counting down to the second break Towalski got his second assist of the night in providing Michael Wales with the pass to equalise at 38mins 20secs.
Zavoral was on the mark again five minutes 55 seconds into the third session to put Flames in the driving seat for the first time and from then on Lightning were unable to find a way back despite outshooting the home side 9-6 – 32-23 in total.
Flames v Lightning match statistics:
Lightning scorers: Nick Poole 1+0, Adam Carr 1+1, Michael Wales 1+0, Matt Towalski 0+2, Grant McPherson 0+1, Mikko Skinnari 0+1.
Flames scorers: Vinny Zavoral 2+1, Lukas Smital 1+0, David Savage 1+0, Stuart Potts 0+2, Paul Dixon 0+1, Ollie Bronnimann 0+1, Ben Duggan 0+1.
Shots on goal: On David Wride 23/4
On Alex Mettam 32/3.
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Weather for Milton Keynes
Thursday 09 February 2012
Today
Light snow
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