Bring on Manchester Phoenix – Lightning are going to the championship play off finals for the first time in two seasons after a sensational 4-3 quarter final victory at Basingstoke Bison to win 7-5 on aggregate.
MKL will face Tony Hand’s Phoenix in the first semi final at the Coventry Skydome on Saturday afternoon. If they are successful they will play either Guildford Flames or Peterborough Phantoms in the final.
Taking a 3-2 advantage to Hampshire Lightning had a fantastic start when Andre Smulter, from Lewis Christie, crashed in a blueline bullet on the powerplay after 1min 31secs.
Ciaran Long levelled the scores on the night from Kurt Reynolds set up on a delayed penalty after 6mins 8secs.
But back came Lightning with Michael Wales’ pass being converted
Early in the second period a Michael Farn shot hit the pipework before Steve Moria was provider for Ben Davies to level again on the powerplay after 28mins 13secs.
Bison then went ahead with their third goal coming from Long on 37mins 31secs after great work from Tony Redmond.
That made it five each on aggregate and as the third period got under way there was still all the play for.
Both sets of fans – Lightning with a large noisy travelling contingent – were kept on the edge of their seats and had to wait until 55mins 50secs for the next goal.
It fell to Lightning when Wales was the supplier for Monir Kalgoum to convert.
As the seconds counted down Bison withdrew Skinns for the extra skater and that gave Kalgoum the chance to seal the game with an empty netter with 43 seconds remaining.
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