A period of wavering form saw Lightning lose their final five consecutive league games, including a 3-4 home defeat to Bison, who finished one place above them in the League.  But Lightning supporters, often credited as some of the best in the league, refused to give up hope of their team qualifying for the Coventry stages, with Saturday seeing another packed crowd in Milton Keynes, then around 200 supporters making the 180 mile round trip to Hampshire on Sunday.
 
Lightning and Bison went into Saturday’s quarter final first leg with honours even and three wins each over the course of the season.  But if Steve Moria’s side were hoping to capitalise on MK’s recent variation in form, they reckoned without the tenacity that won their hosts the league title last season.   Lightning were three goals to the good within only eight minutes, eventually ending the night 3-2 winners; on Sunday Bison pushed their visitors all the way but Lightning dug deep, ending the night 4-3 victors, 7-5 winners on aggregate.
 
Whilst Sunday’s win sent Lightning and  their supporters into raptures at the final buzzer, everyone concerned knows that last weekend’s victories are only the start of the job in hand – the team’s semi final opponents are Manchester Phoenix, who progressed to the Coventry finals courtesy of a 10-4 aggregate victory over Sheffield Steeldogs.  The winner of the MK – Manchester blockbuster will go into Sunday’s showpiece final against either Guildford Flames or Peterborough Phantoms, who contest the other semi-final on Saturday evening.
 
Speaking after Sunday’s quarter-final victory, Lightning defenceman Michael Farn acknowledged that their win marked the start of more hard work this weekend.  “We haven’t accomplished anything yet because we have to win in Coventry.  But the supporters really have been like an extra man on the ice for us all weekend.  We want to hear them loud and proud again at the Skydome!”
 
The team’s general manager Vito Rausa said that defeating Basingstoke had given the team a renewed impetus.  “There’s no denying it was hard work over the two days.   Basingstoke wanted the place at the finals every bit as much as we did, but I’m so proud of the guys on the ice and happy that they got the reward for their hard work – they really did dig deep and worked incredibly hard, every single one of them just kept going right until the end.  It would’ve been easy for the guys to back off and conserve energy when they scored with four minutes left, but they kept going until they’d put it beyond all doubt.

“Our supporters have been outstanding all weekend – first at home on Saturday, but to see so many of them make the long trip to Basingstoke was fantastic – we were amazed by the noise they made, from the first buzzer to the last and as Farny said, they were an extra man for us on the ice.  They didn’t give up all evening, gave the players the motivation to keep pushing, and it worked for us.
 
“The finals in Coventry are always a fantastic event, and we know the supporters will do us proud again – as they do every year.  So the players will be doing absolutely everything they can to repay the fans’ faith in them.  Manchester certainly didn’t expect to lose against Peterborough a fortnight ago, and our last three games against them showed exactly how far we can push them.  We’ll be giving it absolutely everything on Saturday – and hopefully on Sunday too!”