MK Storm net-minder Jordan Hedley  has just returned from his second trip overseas this year with the England U15's team. His first outing in an U15's tournament in Amiens France saw the team finish a very respectable 3rd  with Jordan getting the nod as the best net-minder in the tournament.

This time around they were competing in the Riga Cup in Riga, Latvia where Jordan and his England U15's team mates had been entered in to the tougher U16's tournament (rather than their own age group) in preparation for an U16 event in Tilburg next season. The Riga Cup is regarded as one of the worlds largest youth ice hockey tournaments and attracts the top teams from the whole of Europe's Elite nations such as Russia, Sweden, Finland and Germany. Despite coming up against some very well drilled teams who can boast 2hrs ice time together every day of the week compared to just 2hrs a month for England, England competed each game to the final whistle and whilst never quite getting on the right end of the score-line, raised plenty of eyebrows, going down by just 1 goal in 3 out of their 5 group games.

But it was in the play off stages that England found their rhythm and started to get the wins their play had deserved all weekend. First up was a big test against a strong team called TuTo from Finland. And it was our very own Jordan Hedley who was called upon to play his part in securing the victory - with the game tied at 2-2 the match was to be decided on penalty shots. After 4 shots each the score was 1-1 when Owen Griffiths from Cardiff gave England hope with a well taken penalty shot leaving Jordan to stand big and deny the Fins a win by pulling off an outstanding save to seal the win. All of the "juice boy" training with the MK Lightning clearly paid off and the Lightning lads will not be surprised as many of them have been left reeling by Jordan in training!

England went on to win their last game of the tournament against another Finnish team, Pelicans, in a far less dramatic fashion taking the game 4-2. A fine effort by all of the England team and one of which they can be very proud.

Next up for Jordan is another trip to France, as this coming weekend he travels to Paris, this time with the South West Conference U15's team as they prepare for the season ending Inter-Conference Finals which are held in Hull over the Bank Holiday weekend of 30th April - 2nd May. Everyone at Lightning wishes Jordan and his team mates the best of luck in the coming weeks.