Four goals in 11 second period minutes wrecked any chance of Milton Keynes Lightning had of securing points at Swindon Wildcats on Sunday, as the weekend ended on a disappointing note.
Two more defeats – an 8-4 loss to Basingstoke Bison followed by this 5-2 reverse mean that Lightning’s hopes of challenging for the National Ice Hockey League title are fading fast.
Lightning got off to an excellent start as Bobby Chamberlain supplied Sam Talbot for the opening goal after 2mins 45secs. However, MK were unable to add anything to the early advantage and it was to cost them after the break.
Within seconds of the start of the middle session, Tim Wallace was penalised for hooking. Just 27 seconds after the penalty – called at 20mins 32secs – Swindon were able to take full advantage with a powerplay strike from Polish international Tomasz Malasinski.
Defenceman Ben Nethersell made the pass for Malasinski to defeat goalie Matt Smital to give the home side the lead at 25mins 46secs. There was a golden opportunity for MK to hit back quickly when Swindon coach Aaron Nell was sin binned for boarding less than a minute after, but the visitors were unable to capitalise on the powerplay.
Lightning’s chances of taking anything from the game were diminished further four seconds after the half way mark as Balint Pakozdi added a third goal for Wildcats – the set up coming from another defenceman, Declan Balmer, at 30mins 4secs.
Worse was to come less than two minutes later when, on 31mins 54secs, Swindon took advantage of a high stick penalty on Liam Stewart as Malasinski set up Nell to beat Smital for a fourth time.
MK retrieved the situation slightly thanks a Chamberlain goal on the powerplay at 48mins 33secs while Nell was back in the penalty box for hooking – the assists going to Stewart and Talbot. However, despite some late pressing they were unable to cut the arrears any further.
In a last throw of the dice coach Lewis Clifford called a timeout with 1min 46secs remaining and Smital was withdrawn in favour of the extra skater. The result was an almost immediate empty net goal for Wildcats as Sam Godfrey found Edgars Bebris who scored on 58mins 29secs to make it 5-2.
Man of the match: Bobby Chamberlain.
