Lightning’s inability to capitalise on three third period powerplays ultimately cost them dearly when they went down 3-2 in overtime at bottom of the table Raiders on Sunday – putting a dent in their hopes of a top three National Ice Hockey League finish.
Jake Sylvester sealed the game for Raiders, taking Dan Scott’s pass, to score with 1min 25secs of overtime remaining. Lightning had forced the extra period with a powerplay leveller on 54mins 2secs through a Sam Talbot assisted goal by Tim Wallace.
However, they were unable to find the net on three other occasions when they had the extra man as Raiders conceded a trio of penalties in less than ten minutes and ended regulation time with Ollie Baldock in the sin bin, serving two minutes for slashing.
Again missing key players, Lightning gave a start in the net to Brandon Stones and there was a bright start for the team as they took the lead after 4mins 36secs when Sean Norris set up Talbot to beat goalie Michael Gray. Only 20 seconds later Talbot was sent to the cooler on a two minute slashing call.
Lightning survived the short-handed spell and another one when Edgars Landsbergs was penalised for interference at 18mins 6secs.
The second period was a mere 4mins 11secs old when Ben Russell and Brandon Ayliffe dropped the gloves for a bout of fisticuffs – landing them both in their respective penalty boxes for five minutes for fighting.
JJ Pitchley joined his compatriot in the box after 26mins 46secs on a roughing call. However MK could not take advantage of the powerplay and it was Raiders who scored next as Lukas Sladkovsky and Baldock had a hand in Sylvester’s first goal at 29mins 54secs.
Former Lightning player Rio Grinell-Parke was next in the hot seat for tripping, providing MK with another powerplay – again of no consequence to the score. Back at full strength, the hosts edged in front with an unassisted Jacob Ranson strike at 37mins 29secs.
Final period penalties on Baldock (hooking) and Sean Barry (interference) came and went before Grinell-Parke returned to the sin bin, this time for tripping at 53mins 32secs. Thirty seconds into the powerplay, Wallace was able to beat Gray from Talbot’s set up for the equaliser to send the game into overtime.
With 1min 13secs of the extra period gone there was a coming together of Tom Relf and MK’s Adam Laishram – the former receiving a hooking assessment and the latter going for slashing. Both had just completed their terms when Sylvester scored the winner for Raiders – Lightning having to be content with a single point.
Man of the match: Sam Talbot.
