It’s our first Sunday game of the season. Perfect for the start or end of half-term (depending which county you live in!). Smith Recycling Milton Keynes Lightning welcome Leeds Chiefs back to Planet Ice for our second meeting of the season, MKL having won 8-4 last time out.
Essential Info – Doors Open 4:30pm, Warm up 4:35pm, Face Off 5:15pm.
Tickets available here or on 01908 540020.
To get you in the mood, check out DJ Bertie’s pre-match playlist here. Players will come onto the ice for warmup to the anthemic Come as you are by Nirvana. Grab a copy of the match night magazine ‘Let’s Talk Lightning’ created with 123 Internet group for just £3 and get it signed. Also don’t forget to pick up your 50/50, Ollie’s Grid (to win the Rio’s warmup jersey) and Shirt off His Back tickets (to win Ari Narhi’s shirt and Jordan Stokes dark jersey). Please remember to collect your freshly washed Charity Own and Loans after the match and get your photo done.
Skate with the players! After the match, and perfect to have a chat, get some tips and get something signed. It’s always great fun and good to get up close to your favourite players on the ice.
Match preview
Smith Recycling Milton Keynes Lightning will be looking to build on last Sunday’s hard fought 4-3 win at Raiders against a newly formed Chiefs outfit who have thus far been forced to schedule all their matches on the road due to continued construction delays at their new Elland Road rink. The rink was due to open at the beginning of November but Chiefs have been forced to re-arrange their first home matches to take place at Widnes and Blackburn over the next few weeks. No doubt it has made life difficult for the club, and especially so for a new outfit starting from scratch.
It’s perhaps no surprise that Leeds therefore occupy bottom place in the league with three points to their credit. But Lightning won’t be taking the visitors for granted – MK gained their first win against them with an 8-4 scoreline in a game that was not really settled until the final few minutes. Since then Lightning, short-benched mainly through injuries, have stayed ahead of Chiefs in the table. Chiefs’ only victory came in a 4-0 success over Raiders – a game which saw the club’s current top scorer, James Archer, bag two of the goals and an assist. Radek Meidl assisted on all four goals.
Archer and Meidl – both former MK players – occupy first and second spot in Leeds’ scoring rankings with nine and eight points respectively. Both will need to be kept under close scrutiny. Archer spent a season with Lightning during their 2008-2009 campaign, having made his mark at Peterborough Phantoms. Since then he has spent five years with the defunct Manchester Phoenix, among other clubs. Czech Meidl scored ten times for MK with seven assists before a season ending injury during last year’s Elite League campaign.
Lightning should be boosted by the arrival of the vastly experienced Tom Carlon on a short term contract. Carlon is a familiar, and popular, figure in Milton Keynes, having signed in 2013 and scoring 58 points during the season spent at Coventry while the MK arena was being revamped. He spent a couple of further years with MK as well plying his trade in Abu Dhabi while on a ‘too good to miss’ working opportunity. For the past two years he played for MK Thunder before retirement.
Making the step up from Thunder, forward Logan Prince, has joined Lightning after impressing in his few appearances so far this season. We saw what he could do in a great skate last Sunday at Raiders, so we’re looking forward to having him with us from now on. Last week there were some top performances with Ari Narhi really coming alive to bag two goals in London – more of the same please lads! Speaking with Cliff today, he tells me that they boys have trained well this week and were lifted by the result at Raiders, and have been lifted by your continued support so thank you!
On Saturday Lightning are on the road, making the trip to Swindon Wildcats where face off is at 6.15pm. We have sold out the away fans block there so Wildcats better get ready for some noise! Have fun everyone.
