Phantoms bring Lightning back to earth after two big wins

Milton Keynes Lightning enjoyed two huge wins, only to be brought down to earth with a 7-3 defeat at Peterborough Phantoms on Sunday.

It was the third game in four days for Lightning who scored four times in the final nine minutes to defeat Telford Tigers 6-4 in the first leg of the National Ice Hockey League Cup semi-final before seeing off Swindon Wildcats by a 3-1 margin on Saturday. Lightning remain in third place in the table behind leaders Telford and second spot Swindon.

On Thursday at Planet Ice Tigers looked to be taking a comfortable two goal lead into the second leg having gone 4-2 in front within the first 41 seconds of the third period.

However, a fantastic long range shot from James Griffin that rocketed high into Brad Day’s net at 50mins 49secs lit a spark that saw Milton Keynes Lightning snatch victory.

The home side gave a debut to new signing from Peterborough Phantoms, Morgan Clarke-Pizzo as Lightning struck first on 7mins 44secs through Adam Laishram.

MK goalie Matt Smital made a fine stop to thwart Vladimir Luka but was unable to deny him a second time a few seconds later drew Tigers level at 12mins 2secs.

Telford’s Jason Silverthorn scored on an effectively empty net after Smital advanced too far out of his net.

When Lewis Christie went to sit for two minutes for tripping in the 23^rd minute Tigers capitalised with a Luka blast to give the visitors a 3-1 lead at 24mins 59secs.

Seventeen seconds before the second intermission a Sam Talbot goal gave Lightning a glimmer of hope going into the final period but within 41 seconds of the restart as Silverthorn put the puck past Smital a 4-2 lead.

When Liam Stewart found Griffin in space and he was able to unleash a shot to score at 50mins 49secs. Sean Norris set up Bobby Chamberlain at the right post to draw Lightning level at 52mins 58secs.

On 55mins 4secs MK took the lead for the second time with Laishram’s second strike. Chamberlain made it 6-4 with 16 seconds remaining.

Saturday saw one of the best performances of the season Lightning at Planet Ice as won 3-1 against Wildcats.

There was nothing to choose between the two outfits in the first 20 minutes – reflected in the 0-0 scoreline and that were only ten shots on goal in total. In fact, it was not until the dying minutes of the middle session that there was a goal when Wildcats’ man of the match Tomasz Malasinski scored off his own rebounding shot at 37mins 35secs.

A last minute cross checking penalty on Emil Svec who impeded Talbot allowed MK to start the third session with a 1min 46sec powerplay and Liam Stewart redirected Norris’ blue line blast line 24 seconds after the restart.

Stevie Whitfield was penalised for tripping, and on the powerplay, Talbot converted from Stewart’s supply five seconds from the expiry of the penalty at 44mins 14secs to make it 2-1.

Swindon withdrew goalie Renny Marr in favour of an extra skater with 1min 24secs remaining and Talbot supplied Wallace to score on the empty net with 54.5 seconds remaining.

Lightning got off to a good start at Peterborough thanks to a hooking penalty on Will Weldon that allowed them to score on the powerplay after 5mins 28secs – Stewart finishing off.

Chamberlain was called for boarding at 8mins 41secs and it took Phantoms just 19 seconds to score through Tom Norton. Peterborough pressure paid off on 17mins 24secs as Petr Stepanek was able to squeeze the puck home.

Stewart set up Norris to register at 26mins 33secs, one second after the end of a powerplay. Phantoms hit back when Duncan Speirs on a delayed penalty at 27mins 5secs.

Phantoms made it 4-2 on a 4 on 3 powerplay on 30mins 55secs when defenceman Norton bagged his second goal.

Lightning cut the gap when Callum Buglass was assessed two minutes for tripping and Stewart struck for a second time on 32mins 37secs. Phantoms soon made it 5-3 through Glenn Billing at 35mins 45secs.

Phantoms were able to make the most of the man advantage with Ben Russell sidelined on a tripping penalty as Billing scored at 46mins 16secs.

Phantoms had time to add one more to their tally as Lightning paid the price for another offence – this time Ed Knaggs going for tripping with just under three minutes remaining. Jarvis Hunt made it 7-3.