Lightning shocked league champions Manchester Phoenix with a resilient performance to earn a 3-2 championship play-off semi final win after overtime – and with it a place in the final.
In a closely fought first period neither side was able to make anything of the few powerplay chances they were afforded with Phoenix having a man advantage on two occasions as Matt Towalski sat out an elbows call and Michael Wales was sin binned for slashing. Greg Wood drew Manchester’s only penalty – for holding.
It was not until the half way stage that the first goal was scored and when it came it went to Lightning with Grant McPherson the provider for Matt Towalski on 30mins 3secs.
Manchester had hardly had time to recover from the goal when Lightning struck for a second time with Monir Kalgoum setting up Adam Brittle to register past goalie Stephen Fone after 32mins 57secs.
With referee Dave Cloutman keen to let play flow the second period passed with no penalties called.
In fact it was not until the 58th minute that both Adam Carr and Marcus Kristofferson were penalised for roughing and cross checking respectively.
Lightning looked to be heading for the final until Curtis Huppe set up Pavel Gomeniuk to cut the gap on 58mins 48secs.
And with just 48 seconds of regulation time remaining Huppe got the assist as Tony Hand earned his side the lifeline of overtime.
But it was not to be for Phoenix with Leigh Jamieson sending Lightning into the final with a goal only 19 seconds from the end of overtime.
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