Lightning stretch winning run to eight games
Never say die Milton Keynes Lightning stretched their winning start to the season to eight games with two superb victories against a pair of the best sides in the English Premier League at the weekend.
But they had to come from 4-2 behind with 15 minutes to go to beat Sheffield Scimitars 5-4 at Planet Ice on Saturday – the winning goal not coming until seven seconds from the final buzzer.
On Sunday Lightning won for the first time ever at the John Nike Leisure Centre when they beat reigning champions Bracknell Bees 2-1 thanks to a 54th minute strike from Ross Bowers.
The hosts got off to a disastrous start against Sheffield on Saturday when Ron Shudra set up Rob Dowd to rifle the puck in from long distance, catching netminder Barry Hollyhead cold.
However the visitors lead did not last long as Nick Poole fed Ales Parez for the Czech to cross from the right for a lightning quick Bowers to turn the puck into the goal.
Once more though Scimitars pressed ahead when an already committed Hollyhead was unable to get a glove on Peter Slamiar's shot to give his a 2-1 advantage.
Both sides had only just returned to full strength when Grant McPherson came from behind the net to find a gap to the right of goalie Pasi Raitanen for Lightning's second equaliser.
But it was Scimitars who went into the first break with a one goal lead as they took full advantage of a 5 on 3 powerplay with Mikko Skinnari and Greg Randall both in the sin bin for tripping. Slamiar was the provider for James Goodman to blast home from the blue line.
Scimitars thought they had extended the lead after 24 minutes when Dowd had the puck in the net but the effort was washed out for a high stick on Hollyhead.
Although Lightning outshot the visitors 13-11 in the second session they were still unable to make enough impact on the Scimitars goal and once more found themselves 3-2 behind at the second break.
The situation got worse as Toni Alasaarela was given a two minute charging penalty in the 43rd minute and Ben Morgan supplied Slamiar to make it 4-2 at 44mins 50secs.
The Lightning revival was sparked by the third line and Michael Wales in particular when he took McPherson's pass and charged towards goal catching Raitanen cold to make it 4-3 at 46mins 13secs.
From then on Lightning continued to press and it was Wales again who proved unstoppable as he battled his way through to beat the goalie again on 55mins 26secs for the leveller.
The game looked to be heading for overtime when Nick Poole's pass was collected by Gary Clarke who blasted home with just seven seconds remaining – sending the home crowd into raptures.
The following night Lightning were without import Ales Parez when they went to The Hive – a rink where they have never won.
In an even contest it was Lightning who edged ahead through Clarke in the first period – a lead the visitors maintained at the interval.
The second session saw neither side able to make any headway until Bees new import Michal Kanka found a way past Hollyhead to equalise in the 35th minute.
It was still very much all to play for as the third period progressed – even when Bowers scored what proved to be the deciding goal in the 54th minute Bees were not dead and buried and although they withdrew netminder Greg Rockman in the final 15 seconds they were unable to break Lightning down again.
STATISTICS
Lightning v Scimitars
Period scores: 2-3/0-0/3-1
Lightning scorers: Michael Wales 2+0; Grant McPherson 1+2; Ross Bowers 1+0; Gary Clarke 1+0; Nick Poole 0+2; Ales Parez 0+1; Kurt Irvine 0+1; Adam Radmall 0+1.
Scimitars scorers: Peter Slamiar 2+1; Robert Dowd 1+0; James Goodman 1+0; Ben Morgan 0+2; Ron Shudra 0+1.
Shots on goal: Lightning - Barry Hollyhead 37/4
Scimitars - Pasi Raitanen 29/5
Bees v Lightning
Period scores: 0-1/1-0/0-1
Lightning scorers: Gary Clarke 1+0; Ross Bowers 1+0; Mikko Skinnari 0+1; Michael Wales 0+1; Greg Randall 0+1.
Bees scorer: Michal Kanka 1+0.
Shots on goal: Bees - Greg Rockman 28/2
Lightning - Barry Hollyhead 37/1
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Weather for Milton Keynes
Thursday 09 February 2012
Today
Cloudy
Temperature: -0 C to 2 C
Wind Speed: 6 mph
Wind direction: South west
Tomorrow
Cloudy
Temperature: -4 C to 2 C
Wind Speed: 14 mph
Wind direction: South east
