A superb Liam Stewart hat-trick and the return of two defencemen from injury, plus a surprise appearance from a former Lightning forward steered the team to a well-deserved 8-4 win over Basingstoke Bison at Planet Ice on Friday. The victory sent Lightning a point clear at the top of the National Ice Hockey League with Lewis Clifford’s charges looking increasingly likely to be there or thereabouts with each week that passes. For the first time in a couple of months James Griffin and Sam Russell were able to return to MK’s defence and both gave assured performances as the team, when five on five, gave Bison few opportunities. Equally welcome was the return of Tom Carlon for the first time since the 2016-2017 season – the MK Thunder player looking like he had never been away. Carlon helped to fill the gap left by the absences of captain Russ Cowley and the injured Adam Laishram. Never-the-less Clifford was forced to shuffle the lines [...]

Milton Keynes Lightning remained in the leading pack in the National Ice Hockey League despite a 5-4 penalty shot defeat at Basingstoke Bison on Saturday. Having fought back from being 3-1 behind at the start of the third period MK took the game into a scoreless five minutes of overtime by squaring things at four goals each with a 53rd minute powerplay strike from Leigh Jamieson. That was the encounter remained once overtime had expired, thus requiring penalty shots that eventually clinched a 5-4 win for the Hampshire side when George Norcliffe converted past goalie Matthew Smital. However, Lightning stayed in contention for top spot with a 30 point haul from their 22 games – just one point behind Telford Tigers and Swindon Wildcats. Three goals in less than a minute, beginning with a coast to coast Liam Stewart goal at 4mins 8secs, provided the fans with plenty to cheer about. Disco’s strike, aided by Tyler Nixon and Russell Cowley, was quickly cancelled [...]

Michael Farn made a surprise but welcome return to Milton Keynes Lightning as they closed the gap on league leaders Swindon Wildcats to two points with a comfortable 9-4 win at the Link Centre on Thursday. Farn, now player coach at Streatham Redhawks, was drafted in to fill the growing number of injuries for Lewis Clifford’s side. He did not disappoint, slotting in as if he’d never been away, despite the fact he last appeared for the club in their final English Premier League season in 2016-2017. Wildcats too were short on their normal roster due to injury and Covid-19 protocol, most noticeably Polish import, Tomasz Malasinski, and Edgars Bebris, and were forced to give younger players extra ice time. In truth once Sean Norris had scored twice in the first eight minutes or so, Lightning never looked in danger of losing this vital game. Bobby Chamberlain was the supplier for Norris to go one on one with netminder Dean Skinns on his [...]

Two goals in the opening seven minutes sent Peterborough Phantoms on their way to a 7-2 win over Milton Keynes Lightning at Bretton on Tuesday – the visitors enduring a miserable night. Bobby Chamberlain joined the list of absentees that also included Ben Russell, Mikey Power, Hallden Barnes-Garner, James Griffin and Sam Russell, while Tyler Nixon and Milique Martelly were again added to the squad. Lightning were unable to find a way past goalie Jordan Marr until the 26th minute, by that time they were already three goals behind after Jasper Foster set up Callum Buglass for the opening strike on 5mins 59secs. Buglass doubled his and Phantoms tally on the powerplay after Leigh Jamieson was sin binned for holding in the fifth minute – the second goal coming at 7mins 9secs from a set up involving Nathan Pollard and Morgan Pizzo. Lightning’s cause was then not helped by two quick penalties on Sean Norris for elbows in the 12th minute followed by [...]

A super Bobby Chamberlain second period powerplay goal eventually broke the resolve of Peterborough Phantoms as Milton Keynes Lightning chalked up their tenth win in 12 games with a 5-3 victory at Planet Ice on Monday. Until that moment, neither side seriously looked like scoring in a game that, for the most part, lacked energy. A 29th minute tripping call on Jasper Foster proved to be Phantoms’ undoing when Liam Stewart blasted the puck towards goal from out on the left for Chamberlain to redirect beyond goalie Jordan Marr on 30mins 38secs. Once the hosts broke the deadlock – even at 1-0 – it looked as though there was only going to be one winner with the visitors rarely troubling netminder Matthew Smital. When Phantoms coughed up the puck in the neutral zone for Sean Norris to race up the left and beat Marr one on one with 1min 11secs of the period remaining Lightning looked comfortable. Just 59 seconds of the third session [...]

A fantastic hat-trick from Sam Talbot helped Milton Keynes Lightning bounce back from a home defeat with a 6-2 victory at Sheffield Steeldogs on Sunday. After the 5-2 loss to Steeldogs the previous evening, MK headed to Sheffield for the return National Ice Hockey League fixture and gained revenge with a result that meant they ended the weekend level on points with the second in the table Yorkshire side. At iceSheffield Bobby Chamberlain got the show on the road with a goal after 5mins 8secs – Talbot making the supply - before Adam Laishram and Lewis Christie clashed with Steeldogs Lee Bonner and Jack Brammer. The result was five minute penalties for each of the fighting combatants but there was no change in the score. Both Chamberlain and Leigh Jamieson were despatched to the sin bin in the dying seconds of the first period which meant MK started the second session a player down. Bonner also picked up a roughing penalty as the [...]

An uncharacteristically poor opening 15 minutes cost Milton Keynes Lightning the chance of victory against Sheffield Steeldogs and, with it, their nine match points run at Planet Ice on Saturday. Steeldogs bagged three goals in the first seven minutes and added a fourth before the quarter of an hour was up, leaving Lightning fans hardly able to believe what they were seeing. Although MK were able to recover to take the score to 4-2 by the 28th minute they could not recover further and Steeldogs capped their win with an empty net goal with 35 seconds remaining. A speculative shot from Thomas Palmer caught out goalie Matt Smital after just 2mins 20secs – the strike was unassisted. Tyler Nixon was dispossessed by Sam Towner, who supplied Lee Bonner to fire in number two at 4mins 45secs. Things became even worse on 6mins 54secs when the free scoring Jason Hewitt made it 3-0 – Bonner and Towner both involved in the build-up. That spelled the [...]