A solitary Bobby Chamberlain goal was the only reward Milton Keynes Lightning returned from the long journey to Leeds Knights with as they went down 6-1 to end the weekend without any points.
Knights are a much-improved side to the one that took the ice earlier in the season and under the guidance of coach Ryan Aldridge they will be one of the serious contenders for a playoff final four place at Coventry in April.
The hosts took just 6mins 5secs to open their account when Adam Barnes beat goalie Matt Smital unassisted. Seconds later Knights also suffered the first penalty of the evening when Joe Coulter was caught hooking.
Unfortunately for Lightning, the home side were able to see off the short-handed spell without score and indeed added their tally at only 8mins 16secs with a short handed strike from Cole Shudra – again unassisted.
Two quick penalties on Lightning – Mikey Power in the ninth minute for hooking and Sam Talbot for a high stick – were seen off but things became even worse for Lewis Clifford’s men at 13mins 16asecs when Leeds added a third goal.
This time it was Jamie Chilcott on the scoresheet – aided by Archie Hazeldine and Ethan Hehir to ensure the visitors were facing an uphill battle.
MK did briefly cut the gap when Leigh Jamieson and Sean Norris had a hand in Chamberlain’s strike on 18mins 48secs to give a 3-1 scoreline at the first break.
If the interval gave MK time to regroup it hardly worked because it took only nine seconds for goal number four to come, Kieran Brown setting up Shudra to put the puck past Smital.
It was only a matter of 1min 7secs later that Leeds were able to record a third unassisted goal – Lewis Baldwin the scorer on 21mins 16secs. The fifth goal without reply signalled the end of Smital’s duties in between the pipes, Brandon Stones taking over.
Stones’ appearance did at least stem the flow of goals – the game remaining without further goals until just over eight minutes from the final buzzer.
However, a long series of penalties hampered any hopes MK had of finding a way back into the game. Jamieson’s holding the opponent’s stick call in the 22nd minute was followed by a hooking call on fellow defenceman Lewis Christie. He was joined in the sin bin by Talbot for slashing.
Jamieson was back in the cooler for a high stick offence before the second break while there was no luck for the visitors in the third period when Chilcott conceded a penalty shot for hooking down an MK player. Norris, unfortunately, was unsuccessful with the shot that was saved by goalie Sam Gospel.
Seconds later Lightning received a two minute misconduct penalty before there was further bad news when Chamberlain was given a match penalty head butting and elbows in the 54th minute.
By that time Barnes had rounded off Knights’ tally at 51mins 55secs, assisted by Brown and Hehir.
Not a night to remember for Lightning, especially as Tim Wallace picked up a ten-minute abuse of an official penalty at the final buzzer.
