Lightning take sting from Bees but crash at Chelmsford
Milton Keynes Lightning scored their third successive win over Bracknell Bees on Saturday to take a step closer to qualification in the English Premier League Knockout Cup.
Many home fans feared the worst with Nick Poole's name being added to the list of injury victims which already included Ales Parez and Greg Randall while Bees brought a full roster to Planet Ice.
But two early Mikko Skinnari goals settled home fans' worries – the first goal coming after just 31 seconds when the flying Finn skated in from the blue line to meet and fire in a pass from fellow countryman Toni Alasaarela.
Alasaarela then started the move which saw Skinnari feign a shot following Adam Carr's set up at precisely four minutes. With the netminder, Gregg Rockman, committed, the defenceman then shot home.
It was not until the 18th minute that Bees finally beat the hosts' goalie Barry Hollyhead. With Kurt Irvine serving two minutes for tripping, Skinnari crashed into the back of Hollyhead giving him little chance of saving Michal Kanka's shot at 18mins 53secs.
Lightning went further ahead as they took advantage of a tripping call on Bees' Jan Melichar when Alasaarela turned in Carr's blue line slapshot for a powerplay goal on 27mins 36secs.
The gap was extended to three goals on 35mins 51secs after Irvine sent Grant McPherson away up the left to unleash a rocket shot into the net on the far side of Rockman.
But like the first period it was Bees who had the last goal of the period when Peter Jasik supplied the puck from behind the net for Matt Foord to beat Hollyhead at 37mins 27secs.
Any thoughts of a Bees revival in the third session were quickly wrecked as McPherson redirected Skinnari's blue line shot into the net at 42mins 23secs to make it 5-2.
Gary Clarke rounded off the win to score after 56mins 31secs from Alasaarela's pass from the left.
Tempers then boiled over between Irvine and Bees' coach Dwight Parrish with both being thrown out of the game for resisting the linesmene's attempts to split them up.
The following day Lightning again had a short bench for the English Premier League game at Chelmsford Chieftains.
Despite outshooting Chieftains 12-7 in the first period Lightning had nothing to show for their efforts as the session ended 0-0.
It was not until 36mins 27secs that the first goal came – unfortunately for Lightning it was the hosts who found the net through Kaupo Kaljuste .
Moments later Chieftains' Nathan Williams was ejected following a fight with Dan Croft.
Again the second period ended with Lightning outshooting Chieftains 9-6.
Things got worse for the visitors in the third period as Scott McKenzie set up Mikko Mattila to make it 2-0 on 48mins 49secs.
McKenzie was then provider for Tom Long to put the game beyond Lightning's reach with a goal on 55mins 56secs.
Although Michael Wales ensured Lightning would not go home goal-less the effort at 59mins 55secs was nothing more than a consolation.
Lightning v Bees statistics:
Lightning scorers: Mikko Skinnari 2+1, Grant McPherson 2+0, Toni Alasaarela 1+3, Gary Clarke 1+2, Adam Carr 0+3, Kurt Irvine 0+1, Adam Radmall 0+1, Dan Croft 0+1.
Bees scorers: Michal Kanka 1+1, Matt Foord 1+0, Peter Jasik 0+2.
Nets – Barry Hollyhead 42/2
Gregg Rockman 34/6
Chelmsford v Lightning statistics:
Lightning scorers: Michael Wales 1+0.
Chelmsford scorers: Kaupo Kaljuste 1+0, Mikko Mattila 1+0, Tom Long 1+0, Scott McKenzie 0+2, Shaun Yardley 0+1
Email to a friend
Print this page
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
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
