New injury blow as Scimitars defeated
But Lightning lose at Guildford
Milton Keynes Lightning suffered another injury blow as they saw off a resilient Sheffield Scimitars side 4-1 at Planet Ice on Saturday with defenceman Lukas Zatopek hobbling off during the final period.
Zatopek joined fellow D-man Adam Radmall on the casualty list and both were absent from the team on Sunday when Lightning lost 5-4 to Guildford Flames for the first time this season at the Spectrum Centre. Youngster Ross Green was drafted in to boost the defence.
On Saturday neither Lightning or Scimitars were giving much away in the first period with both sets of players showing a cautious approach to the game.
Even when Scimitars were given an early powerplay chance with Michael Wales penalised for tripping after only 1min 25secs it was the hosts who were mostly on the offensive.
It was perhaps no surprise that the session ended goalless and indeed the first goal did not come until after the half way mark. By that stage the home side had gone agonisingly close after Joakim Wiklander won the puck and put captain Gary Clarke through with time to tee up his shot, only for goalie Paul Jones to block it.
It was Clarke who put his team in front at 30mins 29secs when Zatopek's pass found him in space and he unleashed a scorcher from just inside the blue line to the far side of Jones.
Just seconds later Andre Smulter went close with a long range effort before Joakim Millqvist shot over the bar at the other end.
Just four seconds from the break Scimitars James Goodman was sent to the sin bin for hooking Clarke at the right post and it took the Lightning captain only two seconds to make Sheffield pay for the misdemeanour with the second goal for the hosts.
Only 25 seconds into the third session Sheffield were given a glimmer of hope when the puck appeared to take an awkward bounce as Robert Farmer netted to make it 2-1.
But that was as good as it got for the visitors and they found themselves trailing by two again after coach Ron Shudra was given two minutes for delaying the game at 44mins 43secs.
It took Lightning slightly longer this time to score on the powerplay – 40 seconds – with Michael Wales getting the final touch to a Greg Randall blue line blast.
While Sheffield were still reeling from that goal Randall set up Wiklander for the fourth goal from close in on the left side of goal.
There was no way back for Scimitars after that and they knew it, looking increasingly resigned to defeat in a period dominated by Lightning.
At Guildford the following night injury hit Lightning quickly found themselves a goal behind when Rick Plant scored after 3mins 54secs.
Just over a minute later Martin Bouz extended the lead – sparking a fracas in which Plant was given five minutes plus a game misconduct for roughing as Grant McPherson received two minutes for elbows.
Lightning were unable to make anything of the prolonged powerplay but they did reduce the deficit when Chris McEwen set up Matt Towalski to score at 14mins 47secs.
However Taras Foremsky soon replied for Flames at 16mins 10secs to give the Surrey outfit a two goal cushion going into the break.
Wales cut the deficit to one goal 1min 03secs into the second session on a powerplay hanging over from a last minute holding call on Milos Melicherik – Clarke and Andre Smulter with the assists.
But Flames again extended the gap with Ollie Bronnimann's strike only 44second later.
Once more though Lightning came back at Flames with Wiklander the provider for Clarke on 27mins 47secs.
The final period was less than a minute old when Rob Lamey was the supplier for Lukas Smitla to net what proved to be a game winning goal at 40mins 51secs.
Player coach Nick Poole, set up by Wales, managed to cut the gap again to one at 44mins 44secs but Lightning just could not get the equaliser as they were restricted to only five shots on goal in the final session.
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Weather for Milton Keynes
Saturday 11 February 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: -6 C to 0 C
Wind Speed: 5 mph
Wind direction: South east
Tomorrow
Cloudy
Temperature: 1 C to 3 C
Wind Speed: 10 mph
Wind direction: North west
