Flames establish 5 goal lead

The Flames and Milton Keynes Lightning put league play out of their minds for a Wednesday night Cup Final Leg 1 tilt at Spectrum where the home side exploded for 5 second period goals in less than 10 minutes on their way to a 6-1 win and a 5 goal aggregate lead ahead of leg 2 next week.  Up against a Lightning squad who have suffered just 8 losses all season, and have handed the Flames defeat on 5 of 6 head to head occasions, Surrey’s team knew the first silverware of the season would not be an easy ask and came out hard in the opening period, peppering former Flames netminder Alex Mettam without any reward despite a 12 shot advantage over the 20 minutes of activity.  Eventually the sides settled for a scoreless 1^st and headed to the middle session where a bolt finally came loose on the floodgates when Milos Melicherik beat Mettam for a 1-0 Flames lead at 24:34.  Less than a minute later Lukas Smital doubled the lead.  Just over the midway point, Tom Duggan made it a 3 goal advantage before goals by Smital and Martin Masa 21 seconds apart in the 33^rd minute put up a massive 5 goal spread.  The Lightning finally replied at 37:09 with a Matt Towalski goal to cut the aggregate lead to 4 heading to the final stanza, but Jez Lundin re-stored the 5 goal cushion at 49:14 on the powerplay to put the Flames firmly in the driver’s seat for Cup capture in Milton Keynes.   

 

Flames Head Coach Paul Dixon was pleased with the timing of the performance:

 

“It is no secret that entering the match we had not had a good run of results and often that is a difficult obstacle to push aside before a big game like this.  It is a credit to all the guys for the way they came fully mentally ready to play and with a real belief that we would dictate the game and we would leave the building with the advantage.  It seemed like a night when we were just not going to be denied and that is how we approached the game.  We are by no means in reality a team that is 5 goals better than Milton Keynes on any given night so the scoring was a great bit of timing considering the format of this competition to ensure that we have an advantage we could not possibly have dreamed of heading into to their place for leg 2.  They are not the incoming league champions for nothing so we still have a job to do against a team that is totally capable of an effective reply to snuff out our objective, but we are, nonetheless, pleased with the 1^st leg outcome.  It has been too long since we tasted championship success and we are looking forward to doing what needs to be done next Wednesday to see if we can bring it home.”

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• Flames solidify summit position with pair of wins
• Flames win top of table EPL clash
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• Flames and Manchester in Cup semi final
• Split weekend keeps Flames ahead

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