MK Thunder 6 v 4 Coventry ENL Blaze 

Period Scores: 1 - 2, 3 - 1, 2 - 1 

Penalty Mins:    MK Thunder 61

                         Coventry 16

Shots on Goal:  On MK Thunder’s        Mark Woolf – 31

                          On Coventry’s            Dan Shea – 21

MK Thunder: Mike Knights 1+1, Keiron goody 1+1, Josh White 1+1, Dan Chaplen 1+1, Sam Fairhurst 1+0, Aidan Mahmud 1+0, Matt Roberts 0+2, David Coffey 0+1, Paul Gore 0+1.

Coventry ENL Blaze: Tom Ledgard 1+1, Tom Hurley 1+0, Tom Pease 1+0, Tom Hooper 1+0, Luck Curtis 0+1, Chris Wilcox 0+1.

MK Man Of The Match – Josh White

Thunder were back at home in the Thunderdome on the Sunday to face the ever improving Coventry ENL Blaze. Despite beating the visitors in their barn three weeks before, Thunder were not taking this game lightly. The young Coventry side, bolstered by a number of ex-Thunder players showed in that game that they are a good skating side with considerable offensive capability and just lacked the confidence that comes with playing.

That confidence seemed to be there aplenty in at the beginning of this game as Blaze came at Thunder from the start. It took Thunder ten minutes to shake the tiredness from the night before out of their legs and get into the game. By this time they found themselves 0-2 down, Tom Hurley opening the scoring with powerplay and Tom Ledgard adding the second short-handed, before the five minute mark. Sam Fairhurst got Thunder into the game at 13:10 when he got in front of Dan Shea’s goal to tip in a David Coffey pass. This was young Coffey’s first game for Thunder although it certainly didn’t look like it as he slotted in well alongside Mike Knight in defence. Fairhurst’s goal was the spark that the home side needed and although they trailed 1-2 at the end of the first period, they went into the break on the ascendancy.

Tom Pease made it 1-3 to Blaze at 26:05, but then three unanswered Thunder goals turned the game round by mid-period. Two powerplay goals from Dan Chaplen and Josh White and an unassisted Mike Knights goal saw Thunder begin the final period with a slender 4-3 lead.

Keiron Goody made it 5-3 at 48:27 and an Aidan Mahmud goal in the final minute made it 6-3 before Tom Hooper pulled one back for Coventry with seconds to go.