Lightning make it six wins in a row with double over Bison

A blistering nine minutes in which Milton Keynes Lightning scored five goals gunned down Basingstoke Bison as the hosts stretched their winning run to six games with an 8-3 victory at Planet Ice on Sunday.

The win put in form Lightning within sight of the top three spots in the National Ice Hockey League and followed a 4-2 result at Basingstoke the previous evening.

On Sunday MK dominated from the start against the poorest Bison side in many a year with goalie Alex Mettam under pressure from almost the first buzzer. MK suffered an early blow when defenceman Ben Russell was helped off the ice injured in only the second minute. But despite that, the biggest surprise was that MK only led by two goals at the first break.

Following sustained pressure Bison’s defence was breached on 11mins 29secs after Chamberlain sent Sam Talbot away for a one on one blast into the net. MK saw off a short-handed spell when Chamberlain was sin binned for cross checking ahead of an Ed Knaggs long shot that rebounded off Mettam, only for Adam Laishram to finish off at 18mins 28secs.

The visitors were given hope of a second period revival when Aidan Doughty snapped up an Alex Roberts rebound just 1min 21secs in, but any optimism was swiftly answered when Talbot doubled his tally 25 seconds later.

It sparked a devastating few minutes for the Hampshire outfit with Hallden Barnes Garner sending Stewart away to make it 4-1 after 25mins 39secs. Adam Jones impeded Stewart 61secs later, as last man, and the officials awarded a penalty shot that he duly put away.

Basingstoke immediately called a time out but it did not prevent MK from adding another two goals. Sean Norris supplied Talbot from the left for goal number six to complete the scorer’s hat-trick at 27mins 16secs.

A penalty on Liam Morris increased Basingstoke’s woes as Leigh Jamieson fired a rocket shot from distance to make it 7-1 on the powerplay at 30mins 28secs.

Lightning lost the services of Chamberlain after receiving a fighting penalty following a battle with Dewey just before the second break.

Bison registered for a second time with a powerplay goal from Doughty at 44mins 33secs following a too many men call on the hosts and they further reduced the gap while Stewart was in the sin bin for a high stick – player coach Ashley Tait unleashing a shot from the blue line to beat Stones on 54mins 10secs.

However, Lightning were not quite finished with the alert Barnes Garner sweeping the puck into the goal during a scramble in front of the net to round off the score at 8-3 on 56mins 32secs.

The previous evening MK took a two goal lead at Bison by the second break before the home side levelled in the 50^th minute ahead of two goals in 19secs to ensure the points.

Both teams saw off penalties early in the game before Chamberlain set up Talbot to defeat Mettam after 13mins 58secs for a 1-0 advantage at the first interval. That was the way the score remained until 1min 2secs before the second intermission, Edgars Landsbergs, supplied by Chamberlain, making it 2-0.

The third session was 2mins 56secs old when Bison fought back with a Doughty goal and the hosts equalised with an unassisted breakaway goal from Liam Morris after 50mins 46s.

However, Lightning were able to hit back with a powerplay effort by Chamberlain on 54mins 9secs and a Norris strike just 19 seconds later to complete a 4-2 scoreline.