Nick Poole’s men gave Manchester Phoenix the fright of their lives last Saturday at a packed Thunderdome as part of the MK Festival of Ice Hockey, when they not only opened the scoring but took the lead four times during the game, scored one powerplay and one short-handed goal, and were only minutes away from forcing the game into overtime when a Joe Miller shot snatched a narrow 5-6 win for the visitors. 

Sunday’s fixture however saw a reversal of form with a  subdued home side on the receiving end of a 3-6 defeat at the hands of Basingstoke Bison - the team they face this Saturday, then must beat in the quarter-final of the EPL play-offs over two legs, to progress to the showpiece finals in Coventry.

Lightning know that both of this weekend’s fixtures – away to Basingstoke, then at home to Slough Jets - will require every ounce of determination to produce good results, but they are determined to erase the memory of a disappointing weekend.

Player-coach Poole said that a buoyant end to the season was the very least Lightning could do to repay the faith of their supporters.  “Saturday left us all feeling confident and optimistic about the play-offs, but it was a very poor performance on Sunday.  As a team we are disappointed and embarrassed by our performance against Basingstoke last Sunday - we have a lot of pride and we let ourselves down and, more importantly, our fans. 

And he responded to recent criticisms from some supporters about the team’s policy of rotating imports since signing Blaz Emersic in January.  “I still believe that was the right call.  We don't rely on one player to win games and one player will never be responsible for losing a game - every bit of success we have had has always come down to team ethos and spirit.  It won’t be a question of personnel that will get us to Coventry, it will be a question of team character and mentality - and I do firmly believe we’ll get there.

“We have two games this weekend to prepare ourselves mentally and physically for the task at hand, and whilst neither game will be easy they do give us an opportunity to put Sunday behind us.  Once at Coventry then anything is possible!”