Tonight, we welcome to the Link Centre a team well known to the Wildcats fans as we’ve battled it out over many years and had some great games along the way. So far this season we have played a few games against the Lightning in the first game MK took the win in overtime in their home rink as part of the Autumn Cup. In the two league meetings between the two teams the Wildcats have been on top and fairly comfortably in each game, at the Link Centre the Cats won 7-4 and in MK Swindon thrashed the Lightning 6-1.
Over the Xmas period Swindon faced the Lightning at home and thanks to a covid outbreak the Wildcats played understrength and suffered a 9-4 defeat in the process. The most recent league meeting between the two happened in MK with both sides at full strength and the Lightning won this one 3-1.
The opposing coach tonight is Lewis Clifford, he has become synonymous with ice hockey in Milton Keynes over the years. He has been involved in coaching senior hockey in the town for the past decade and this season will be his second in charge of the Lightning in the NIHL National.
In goal the Lightning have retained the services of Brandon Stones for the second season in a row and after the departure of Jordan Lawday to Telford, Matt Smital has come into the number two slot in MK. Smital is a well thought of young goalie so he will most definitely be pushing Stones for starts all season long. This pairing gives MK a solid foundation to build upon for this year.
This season Milton Keynes started out only running with one import, Canadian forward Adam Laishram. He joins the Lightning having played his whole career previously in Canada, this included 3 seasons in major juniors with Belleville, Hamilton and Windsor of the OHL. Following the OHL Laishram spent 4 years playing on his university team. However, midway through the season the opportunity arose for them to sign ex-NHL forward Tim Wallace following his release from Head Coaching duties with the Nottingham Panthers, this is an outstanding addition to an already very strong roster.
On the back end there is some real strength in depth as the Lightning boast a 6-man unit that would be the envy of most in the league. Another big strength is the fact that most have been playing together for many years. The elder veteran of the group is utility player Leigh Jamieson who can play both up front and in defence, he is then complemented by 4 players who’ve all been great servants in MK; Lewis Christie, Ross Green, James Griffin and Ben Russell are all back for another year. They have one returning player who comes back after two seasons away playing with the Bracknell Bees, Ed Knaggs is back again in Lightning colours, he last iced for them in the Elite League.
There are two key forwards who have returned for the MK Lightning, Liam Stewart and Russ Cowley have both put pen to paper for another season, this pair scored 111 points between them during the previous season, these two will be key to any success that the Lightning hope to have this year. In addition to this pair Clifford has made a great signing Bobby Chamberlain, who is also very capable of being a dominant scoring force in the NIHL.
In addition to all the above Milton Keynes have secured the signatures of two young forwards who are very exciting and I’m sure the Lightning fans will be dying to watch their progress over the coming season. Sean Norris and Sam Talbot have moved to Milton Keynes after a single season in the NIHL National with the Basingstoke Bison. Prior to playing with the Bison this pair lit things up with the Slough Jets in the league below. In addition to these two the Lightning have added Michael Power who has joined from the Bees.
On paper this is a superb roster and if they deliver on the potential of it then the Lightning will be a very dangerous side to anyone that they come up against.
