Adam Carr and Blaz Emersic were the heroes with the winning penalty shots as Lightning edged out Basingstoke Bison 3-2 at the Thunderdome.

But Lightning had to do it the hard way after going down 2-0 in the first period before fighting back to tie the first session 2-2.

Amazingly there were no further goals in the following two periods of regulation time and five minutes of overtime.
The game was just 88 seconds old when Nick Poole was called for tripping to give Bison a powerplay from which Nicky Chinn tipped in a long shot from Mindy Kieras – strangely the goal being credited to Kieras.

There was no such doubt about Bison’s second goal by Ollie Bronnimann at 5mins 29secs following some poor defending by Lightning.

Exactly four minutes later though Lightning cut the deficit when Adam Brittle seized on the loose puck after a fumbled save by goalie Dean Skinns and planted it home.

An altercation between Michael Wales and Ciaran Long saw both despatched to the penalty box in the 14th minute.

As Wales emerged from the sin bin he made the pass to Adam Carr to fire home for the equaliser on 17mins 1secs.

Gary Clarke should have done better when presented with a great chance early in the second session while just before the midway point Kurt Reynolds’ effort hit the pipework and bounced out.

Lightning outshot Bison 17-7 in the second session but had nothing to show for their efforts.

In the third period Clarke went close to taking revenge in the best possible way after he was charged by Kieras but his shot was well saved. At the other end Viktor Kubenko had a great effort stopped by goalie Barry Hollyhead.

With no further goals the game went into overtime which again produced no result and thus it was down to penalty shots with Carr scoring and Bronnimann having his saved. Blaz Emersic then scored high into the net before Hollyhead’s save from Ondrej Lauko sealed the two points for Lightning
MKL Goals

9.29 Brittle E
17.01Carr, Wales, Christie E
65.00 Special Player – Penalty Shots

Basingstoke Goals

2.21  Chinn, Lauko, Kieras PP
5.29 Bronniman, Lauko, Chinn E

MKL Penalties

1.28 Poole, 2 mins, slashing
14.48 Wales, 2 mins cross checking
22.06  Poole, 2 mina, holding the stick
28.08 Jamieson, 2 mins, charging
39.28 Wales, 2 mins, roughing
39.28 Wales, 2 mins, roughing

Basingstoke Penalties

14.48 Long, 2 mins, slashing
31.03 Chinn, 2 mins, slashing
39.28 Chinn, 2 mins, roughing
39.28 Chinn, 2 mins, roughing
39.28 Chinn, 2 mins, roughing
44.17 Kieras, 2 mins, charging
58.39 Bronniman, 2 mins, tripping

Shots on Goal

MKL – Hollyhead – 10, 7, 8, 6 = 31

Basingstoke – Skinns – 12, 17, 13, 2 = 44

Referee – Dave Cloutman