Three games in five days this coming week may sound like a punishing schedule – but it gives Milton Keynes Lightning an unmissable opportunity to climb back up the English Premier League table and continue their push for silverware this season.  Nick Poole’s side took maximum points from wins in both of the weekend’s vital games against Sheffield and Peterborough, and have now won four from their last six fixtures.

With 12 wins from 18 games so far – including confidence-boosting victories over league champions Manchester Phoenix, play-off champions Guildford Flames and cup winners Slough Jets – the Lightning shot to the top of the table in the early weeks of the season.   A spell of inconsistent form has seen last season’s play-off runners-up slip to fourth in the table but with up to three games in hand on the teams above them.
 
The first of those games in hand happens this Wednesday when Nick Poole’s team takes on Steve Moria’s Basingstoke Bison at the Thunderdome (Wed 30 November, 7.45pm).  The two sides have met twice already this season in a back-to-back weekend last month, with Lightning collecting maximum points from the encounters.  A 1-0 away victory for MK showed exactly how closely-matched the two teams are, but 24 hours later it was the home side who hit their stride first, enjoying a deserved 4-1 victory.  After losing both of this weekend’s games against Bracknell and Manchester, Bison sit two places and four points below Lightning in the league table.

Next Saturday sees the second league visit this year of one of the league’s anchor teams, Peterborough Phantoms.  Lightning spooked the Phantoms on Sunday, putting in a tenacious performance to overcome the loss of Blaz Emersic to a match penalty early on, MK beat their hosts 4-2 with goals from Leigh Jamieson, Michael Wales, a first ever Lightning goal for Jamie Line and the final blow hammered home by Adam Carr.

The final fixture of this packed period sees Lightning make the journey to Telford to take on Tom Watkins’ determined young Tigers side – another team that MK is looking to extend an unbeaten run over.  Despite having won only two games from 20 in regulation time, Tigers have taken their opposition to overtime four times this season, going on to win three of those - which Nick Poole knows means his team will have to have to concentrate hard until the final buzzer.

“Telford have shown a lot of teams this season that they won’t give up without a fight to the end, and their league position totally belies how difficult they can be to play against – you underestimate them at your own risk.

“The midweek game against Bison and Saturday’s against Phantoms will be two fantastic games for our supporters.  Every time we play Basingstoke, we get at least 60 minutes of end-to-end action and some great games.  They’ve really picked up some momentum recently and are right on our tails, so we want to put a little space between us.  Being a weeknight game we know some of our supporters will have different priorities, but it would be great to see another big attendance and make it worth their while turning out for us.  “Phantoms have been tricky opposition for us so far this season, but we beat them on their own ice at the weekend, and on Saturday we’ll have home advantage – it’s about time we put the ghost of their win here in October, behind us.  We’ve won four of our last six games and hopefully have put recent inconsistencies behind us.  The teams at the top of the table are separated by only a few points, so our aim is to push onwards and upwards”.

The puck drops against Basingstoke Bison at Planet Ice in Milton Keynes at 7.45 on Wednesday 30 November at 7.45pm, and against Peterborough Phantoms at 7.00pm on Saturday 3 December.  Lightning travel to Telford on Sunday 4 December, face-off is at  5.30pm