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Telford Tigers 2 - 6 Milton Keynes Lightning
The omensa couldn't have been clearer for Tigers this weekend - they were playing the reigning league champions on Halloween and only had 13 skaters.
So it was little surprise that Milton Keynes ran out 6-2 winners, but Telford showed they still had a trick or two up their sleeves and treated their fans to a gutsy performance right to the final buzzer.
Early pressure from the visitors resulted in a powerplay goal within three minutes but Tigers responded with a cracking strike of their own, Joe Henry putting the puck into the top corner at 8:20, assisted by Marek Hornak and Scott McKenzie on the powerplay.
Lightning's spot on passing and positional play cost Telford three unanswered goals in the second period, two of them from former Tiger Gary Clarke.
But the home side battled on, even after Milton Keynes took the score the 6-1. And when Luke Brittle fired home his debut Tigers goal at 58:33, supported by Scott McKenzie and Tom Watkins, the supporters'
celebrations were as enthusiastic as if the team had just won the game.
Afterwards player-coach Tom Watkins said: "It was an awkward game. We lost Andrejs this weekend to an eye infection, although he should be back for next week. And of course we are short with Ash Stanton still being out and we released Chris in the week, so that makes it difficult.
"We came in with five defence and eight bodies and we played great in the first period. We took a few too many silly penalties, myself included, but that comes a little bit from being fatigued during the game.
"We worked really well; it's just a shame we can't sustain the pressure down low and pucks seemed to come back easy which is quite frustrating."
However, he was encouraged by the late goal from Brittle, demonstrating the never-say-die attitude of his team.
"That'll happen when you've got young guys in the team, providing heads don't drop. I know I get the work ethic out of the guys.
"Sometimes I feel we have to work a little bit smarter and pick our spots and not go after lost causes because that is taking energy we don't need to waste. If we can sit back and be a little more patient at their blue line, let them come into our trap hopefully we can turn a few more pucks over. But that's just guys being really keen and wanting to work hard all the time.
"Luke has come from a junior career where he's used to scoring lots of goals and it's taken him a while to get his first. He's had his head down a little bit but he's kept going.
"He was able to play with the Titans on Saturday so he got a little bit more time on the puck then he has over the last few week. Luke thoroughly deserved that goal."
Scoring helped bring a man of the match award for 17-year-old Brittle, playing against his brother Adam who is in his second season with Lightning.
"It was good to break the ice and get a nice goal, but it was shame to lose the game 6-2," said the youngster, who felt the team had responded well to being two imports short.
"We were shortbenched and got tired, so a lot of the goals against came from that. But defensively everybody worked hard and on the whole we had a good game.
"Everybody just got on with it and it didn't really affect us other than we were tired. I think it was a more enjoyable game and everybody got into it."
Next weekend sees Tigers playing at home on Saturday (5.30pm) against Peterborough Phantoms, with the game followed by a fun family quiz and 'meet the players' event in the Ice Rink bar.
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| 12th March 2006 19:00 | ||
5-3 |
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4-5 |
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1-4 |
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4-4 |
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| 11th March 2006 19:00 | ||
2-4 |
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| 11th March 2006 19:00 | ||
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5-8 |
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| 19th March 2006 19:00 | ||
5-1 |
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4-1 |
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5-2 |
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| 19th March 2006 19:00 | ||
3-7 |
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| 19th March 2006 19:00 | ||
1-1 |
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| 19th March 2006 19:00 | ||
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- Tigers make back room changes
- New 'old' look for Tigers
- Watkins signs with Tigers for third season
- Tigers lose influential player
- GB fixture for Tigers
