Toughest season yet ahead for Lightning
English Premier League confirm plans for next term
Milton Keynes Lightning will face their toughest season to date in the English Premier League, following the announcement of the teams set to take part in the competition.
The acceptance of Basingstoke Bison and Manchester Phoenix was confirmed at the EPL's annual meeting – and those sides will undoubtedly provide a stronger challenge than Wightlink Raiders and Telford Tigers who they will replace.
Both Bison and Phoenix have moved down from the Elite League for financial reasons.
The rest of the ten strong league comprises, apart from Lightning, Bracknell Bees, Guildford Flames, Peterborough Phantoms, Romford Raiders, Sheffield Scimitars, Slough Jets and Swindon Wildcats.
The league will again consist of 54 games for each team – the sides will meet each other three times at home and three times away with the opening games taking place on the weekend of September 19 and 20.
In addition to that Lightning are planning pre-season challenge matches on September 12 and 13.
In a bid to improve the fixture programme the EPL has invested in new computer software rather than the games being hand-picked.
The first home and away games against each side will also count towards the English Premier Cup which will be on a group basis.
The top four teams in the group will go forward to home and away cup semi-finals. The final will also be a home and away affair.
The top eight teams at the emd of the league will go forward to straight knockout play-off quarter finals on the weekend of April 3 and 4 – again these will be two legged.
The season will then reach its climax with the winners going through to the semi-finals and final at Coventry Skydome on April 10 and 11.
The inclusion of Bison and Phoenix means that fans can look forward to a consistent standard of ice hockey comparable to the now defunct British National League – the only difference now being the reduced number of imports, four compared with eight.
Bison's coach is the evergreen Steve Moria who has moved in the close season from Slough, while fellow verteran, Tony Hand is in charge at Phoenix. And a number of Slough's squad have moved with Moria including Joe Ciccarello and Scott Spearing.
Guildford Flames' coach Paul Dixon has rung the changes after the team disappointed by failing to win any silverware last term – by recruiting Gary Clarke from the Lightning, among others.
Peterborough should also be a changed side after completing a historic treble win – not least in the coaching stakes where Colin Patterson will not be returning and who has now been replaced by Doug Irwin.
Peter Russell has switched from bench coaching Bracknell Bees to coach Slough while Claude Dumas has taken over at Bees who look to have a battle on their hands with a restricted budget.
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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
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