Period Scores: 0 - 2, 0 - 0, 0 - 1 

Penalty Mins:    Telford ENL Tigers 76        MK Thunder 70                       

Shots on Goal:  On MK Thunder’s           Allen Sutton – 30  

                  On Telford ENL Tiger’s    Chris Barlow – 29

Telford  ENL Tigers:            

MK Thunder: Maryn Snape 2+0, Keiron Goody 1+1, Mike Knights 0+1, Sam Fairhurst 0+1, David Coffey 0+1, Dan Chaplen 0+1.

Man of the Match:          Matryn Snape 

With honours even in the cup competition, Thunder travelled to Telford for their first league encounter of the season with a severely depleted squad. Injuries and suspension meant that the Milton Keynes side were able to ice just two lines and gave young Storm U18, Martyn Snape, his Thunder debut.

In a very tight opening period, both sides had their opportunities but it was Thunder’s Keiron Goody who eventually broke the deadlock two minutes from the end of the period finishing off a move involving Dan Chaplen and Mike Knights. Telford’s Mike Roden took exception to being scored against and jumped Dan Chaplen as the Thunder player went to join in the celebrations, to his credit Chaplen fought back resulting in both players being ejected from the game. When the game eventually got underway again it took Thunder less than a minute to open a two goal lead, Martyn Snape scoring his first Thunder goal assisted by fellow U18 David Coffey.

The second period was scoreless as Thunder concentrated on keeping their advantage and Tigers took every opportunity to intimidate the oppositions younger players. A high stick penalty on Thunder’s Aidan Mahmud resulted in him being jumped from behind by another of Telford’s notorious ‘older players’ Graham Oldham.

It took Thunder less than a minute of the final period to wrap the game up when Snape made it 0-3, assisted by Keiron Goody and Sam Fairhurst. This was a real team performance from Thunder, they put in tremendous effort throughout the game to make up for the short bench and reaped the rewards against their less than gracious hosts.