Telford Tigers 0-2 MK Lightning
Period Scores: 0-0, 0-2, 0-0
MK Scorers: Gary Clarke & James Pease

Lightning made the journey to Telford to face the Tigers in their second pre-season challenge game. This was Telford’s first home, just three weeks after the team nearly folded due to the withdrawal of their main sponsor. A large home crowd was there to support the team, leading to a fired up home team and a difficult challenge awaited MK.
With confidence high from their big win the previous evening, Lightning took to the attack early to get an early goal and kill the atmosphere, despite some good opportunities for Gary Clarke and James Archer, the visitors could find no way past Davey Lawrence. Both sets of fans did rise to their feet when a late hit by Scott Williams on Matt Towalski saw the two come to blows. Matt got a couple of good hits on his opponent but the fight ended a draw with neither player scoring a takedown.
Lightning managed to break the deadlock in the second period, when Gary Clarke picked up his first goal of the pre-season, Clarke playing the puck from behind the net and deflecting it off the back of Lawrence’s leg pad. Lightning then had to endure some pressure from the home side, which were determined to give their fans a goal to cheer. However an on form Barry Hollyhead kept the Tigers at bay. Lightning’s powerplay then had a chance to show what they could do on 33 minutes and they obliged with James Pease scoring his second goal of the weekend, like the previous evening he tipped in another Lukas Zatopek slapshot. With just over a minute to go in the second period, the hosts had a player ejected after Ashley Stanton was giving a match penalty for trying to start a fight with Ales Parez. The Lightning forward, cleverly dropped to the ice and covered up, resulting in Lightning getting a seven minute powerplay.
The third period began with Lightning’s extended powerplay, however the Telford defence stood firm and prevented the visitors from creating any dangerous goal scoring opportunities. The Lightning clearly were not 100% match fit and were content to conserve their energy and defend their two goal lead. This gave the home side a chance to get a goal, but despite being cheered on by the home crowd they were unable to find a way past Hollyhead who held on for a shutout. The man of the match for Lightning went to Nick Poole, who helped create a number of attacking plays and never backed down from any loose puck or physical play, however other notable performances were from Matt Towalski, who deserved a goal for his efforts and Hollyhead who made some big saves between the pipes. The travelling fans left happy with two wins from two games and confidence is high ahead of the visit of Peterborough next weekend.