Last Saturday saw the TSI World Bees take the trip to Planet Ice Milton Keynes to take on the MK Lightning. The Bees found themselves without Adam Rosbottom and Joe Baird, while Milton Keynes were without several big names, including their newest import plater. Adam Laishram iced for the Lightning, who had previously iced for the team, and the Bees saw James Galazzi return to the lineup after serving his ban. Dan Rose took the opening face-off for the Bees giving an early advantage as he came away with the puck, leading to an early test of MK netminder Jordan Hedley.
MK star player, Liam Stewart got the puck to the back of the Bees net, giving the Lightning a 1-goal lead at 00:56. With both teams fighting to take control of the game, Bees' Alan Lack and Ross Green both received penalties after a confrontation near the MK goal. Whilst the game was 4 on 4, the Bees took advantage of MK being a player down and worked to equalise the game. Chances coming from Juha Lindgren, a promising young player for the Bees, as well as Josh Martin, did not manage to break the MK defence. In the closing seconds of the period, Dominik Gabaj got past Jordan Hedley equalising the game with an assist going to JJ Pitchley.
Going into the second period the Lightning were keen to take every chance to take an early lead but all chances were shut down by Adam Goss in net for the Bees. Dominik Gabaj took the puck into the MK defensive zone and was quick to create chances for the Bees to take the lead but his shots went wide and gave Sean Norris the chance to take the puck up into the Bees defensive zone and Sean hit the post. The intensity of the game spilt over again as the gloves were dropped between MK's Ross Green and JJ Pitchley.
MK player Bobby Chamberlain decided to take on the other Bees players in the corner. The incident resulted in multiple penalties for both teams but ultimately the Bees were given a one-man advantage, leading to Juha Lindgren and, new Bees import, Brendan Walkom leading the charge to the goal. However, Jordan Hedley played exceptionally well in goal for MK, denying a chance for the team to tie to score.
The third period was scoreless for both teams, but not without chances. James Galazzi received a 2 minute minor penalty for tripping, leading to more chances for the Lightning but a solid penalty kill from the Bees, saw MK fail to capitalise on their advantage. With 40 seconds left of the game, Doug Sheppard called a timeout for the Bees to regroup and ultimately pull Adam Goss from the Bees' net giving the team a 6-player advantage. More great chances came from Will Stead and Dominik Gabaj but were not enough to equalise the game and led to the MK Lightning coming out of the game with 2 points and the win. The final score was Lightning 2- Bees 1. Adam Goss was awarded Man Of The Match for the Bees after an impeccable performance in goal.
Brendan Walkom can see the positives even with the result, saying: “[It was] Not the result we wanted but there’s a lot to build off of. Didn’t get the break we needed and the boys battled really hard. We will continue to grow as a group within the next few weeks. Our minds are now set on travelling to Leeds in hopes of a road win.”
The Bees return to home ice this Sunday, in Slough, for the second leg of a doubleheader against the Leeds Knights.
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