MKNEWS MKL vBison05032014
Lightning have a mountain to climb if they are to lift the English Premier League Cup for the first time after they were comprehensively beaten 4-1 by Basingstoke Bison in the first leg at Coventry Skydome on Wednesday.
Bison struck after 4mins 2secs when Lightning were caught in a two on one offensive move - Ross Green the only man back - with former MK favourite Michael Wales supplying Andrew Melachrino to put the puck high into the net past goalie Stephen Wall after 4mins 2secs.
The response from the hosts was swift and at 5mins 32secs they were level - Blaz Emersic the provider for Tom Carlon who came from behind the goal to shoot with netminder Dean Skinns blocking, but not covering the puck and Carlon was able to follow up.
Lightning's penalty kill teams remained resolute when Ross Bowers was sin binned for interference in the 12th minute - denying Bison the chance to go in front.
Michael Farn went close to scoring with a shot which Skinns only just got a leg to before a long pass from Adam Carr reached Leigh Jamieson on the left and his effort was blocked.
Carr came even closer with a blast which Skinns fumbled before it went wide in the 16th minute.
The second session could only be described as a disaster for Lightning who spent much of the time shorthanded - with costly consequences.
In fact Bison had more shots on goal during the middle session than the home team had in the entire game.
Grant McPherson was sin binned for a high stick in the 21st minute and within seconds Joe Greener set up Miroslav Vantroba for a shot from the blue line which Wall could only watch hit the back of the net at 22mins 12secs.
Lightning then had to defend a five on three penalty as both Jokila and Lewis Christie were penalised for hooking and checking to the head respectively. But the closest Bison came to scoring was when Wall saved a Vantroba effort with his legs.
Bison had another powerplay as McPherson and Aaron Connolly were given two minutes each for roughing and Lukas Zatopek was also sent to the sin bin for delaying the game.
This time the Bison pressure paid off with Melachrino making it 3-1 after 32mins 45secs.
The game slipped further away from Lightning after 35mins 9secs when Ciaran Long, assisted by Joe Greener, fired in from the left hand side.
From then on it looked increasingly unlikely that the hosts would break through again.
Heavily outshot 22-3 in the second session Lightning did at least enjoy a marginally better final period.
But even when Bison were reduced to three skaters with penalty calls on Matt Selby and Joe Baird Nick Poole's men were unable to make an impression.
Jamieson's involvement in the game was ended with 11 minutes to go as he was given a 12 minute penalty for checking from behind and Bison's Kurt Reynolds followed suit soon after for an identical offence against Jordan Cownie.
Bowers and Zatopek tested Skinns late on but that was as close as the home team got, Bison taking home a healthy three goal advantage for the second leg next Wednesday.
