Milton Keynes Lightning Vs Romford Raiders 26th September 2009

Milton Keynes Lightning 3 Romford Raiders 2 (1-0 : 1:2 : 1-0)

Romford turned in their best performance of the season at Milton Keynes on Saturday, but eventually went down to a 1 goal defeat. With Euan King, Adam Copeland and Michael Timms missing, Romford called up netminder Andy Boot, as well as Frankie Harvey and Joe Allen from the Fury.

The first action of the game, was a penalty on Michal Palik, for hooking, but Romford were able to kill off the penalty without too many problems. The home side had the better of the next 10 minutes of the period as well, with Joe Myers forced into making saves from Nick Poole, and Adam Brittle. Romford had a great chance of their own, when Dallas Costanzo fired wide, but it was the Lightning who opened the scoring shortly after. Poole was the architect of the goal, as the worked the puck in the corner, before feeding it out in front of the net, for the unmarked Adam Carr to fire home. Romford killed off another penalty, when they were penalised for changing a player after an icing call, and the period ended 1-0.

An early penalty on Monir Kalgoum gave Romford a powerplay chance in the 2nd period, but despite working a couple of decent openings, they were still unable to score. However, just after the home side returned to full strength, Romford did tie the game. The goal was created by Palik, who drove down the right, powered inside, got off a shot, and when the puck bounced back off Alex Mettam's pads, Allen was perfectly placed to fire home, with his first touch of the puck, at 24.30. This gave Romford the boost they needed, and they continued to dominate the period. When Matt Towalski was called for holding, at 28.13, it no surprise when the Raiders took the lead. Danny Marshall set up Darren Cotton for a close range finish, at 29.01, with Harvey getting his name on the scoresheet, with the 2nd assist. Romford needed to hang on to, or even increase their lead, going into the final period, to give them a further boost, but they were unable to do either, as the home side tied the game. Defenceman Lukas Zatopek sent in a rocket of a shot, that flew past the unsighted Myers, at 34.07.

The home side took the lead again, at 48.53, when Grant McPherson converted a pass from Michael Wales, from close range, following a period of pressure on Myers's goal. Romford pressed for the game tieing goal, but Mettam was equal to everything that they could throw at him. With just over a minute to go, Myers was pulled for the extra skater, but despite keeping the pressure on the Lightning goal, Romford were unable to get the goal they needed, and the game finished 3-2.

Man of the match for Romford went to Cotton, with McPherson taking the Lighting award.