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Telford Tigers defeated Smith Recycling Milton Keynes Lightning for the second time this season with a 6-2 victory in Shropshire.
The result left Lightning finishing the weekend second from the bottom of the National Ice Hockey League. Lightning fell behind after 3mins 13secs when veteran Jason Silverthorn set up Brandon Whistle for Telford’s opening goal – seconds before the hosts’ Finley Howells was sin binned for cross checking. On the powerplay the best effort came from Kana from the blue line while Carlon’s pass across the face of goal missed its intended target.
Sam Russell was next in the penalty box – receiving two minutes for roughing on 8mins 47secs, Lightning surviving the short-handed spell although Scott McKenzie missed an open net chance. Howells was back in the penalty box in the 12th minute – this time for hooking but the man advantage for the visitors ended abruptly when Rio Grinell-Parke was called for roughing after checking Dominik Florian into goalie Dean Skinns.
The first period ended with the single goal lead for Tigers – one that was quickly wiped out when James Griffin supplied Kana to equalise 39 seconds after the restart as he scored at the second attempt. Ari Närhi then managed to skate but his shot hit the side netting before Telford had a rebounding shot which was picked up by former MK player Jack Watkins whose blast went in off the metalwork at 22mins 10secs.
When Grinell Parke was called for tripping on 27mins 25secs Tigers made the most of it as Watkins doubled his tally, aided by Daniel Mitchell and Florian just 24 seconds into the powerplay. MK ended in further arrears on 35mins 12secs following a period of sustained Tigers pressure as Dan Rose finished off a move involving Thomas McKinnon and Whistle, firing in a top shelf shot. Just over a minute later Tanaka set up Liam Stewart saw his shot hit netminder Bradley Day before ending in the net at 36mins 59secs.
There was a golden opportunity for Kana on an open net but the chance was gone when he was checked by his Tigers opponent ahead of Rose being sin binned for high sticking on Närhi 28 seconds from the second break.
The powerplay extending into the third session came to nothing and soon after it ended Silverthorn got on the scoring act with Telford’s fifth goal on 41mins 55secs – helped by Ross Kennedy and Whistle.
A further powerplay for the visitors, the result of an interference call on Thomas McKinnon came and went without a change in the score and MK’s disappointing night was capped when Silverthorn netted for a second time at 50mins 37secs. The powerplay goal was scored while Kana was serving time for tripping.
The Czech player was soon to return to the sin bin this time for goalie interference in an incident which also saw Andy McKinney consigned to the cooler for roughing.
With no further goals all in all it was another bad night for Lewis Clifford’s men, especially so with Tanaka picking up a 10 minute misconduct penalty after the buzzer.
Man of the match: Sam Russell.
Photo: Steve Brodie / Telford Tigers
