Telford Tigers must overcome a two-goal deficit against Milton Keynes Lightning on Sunday night, after they tumbled to a 3-1 defeat in the play-off quarter-final first leg.
Defeat at the Thunderdome on Saturday was just the Tigers’ second loss to Milton Keynes this season, following an impressive run of form against Pete Russell’s men.
Dan Scott
The two teams face each other in the second leg at Telford Ice Rink on Sunday evening (6pm), with the prize of a place at next month’s Coventry finals tournament at stake.
Tigers coach Tom Watkins believes his side can still regain the upper hand over Milton Keynes – but they must improve on Saturday night’s showing.
He said: “We have got to be prepared to turn up and play play-off hockey, and we didn’t do that tonight. We got knocked off pucks quite easily down low.
“They put a lot of pressure on our defence, we gave up a lot of speed through the neutral zone and there’s a lot of areas where we have to be better tomorrow night.
“Thankfully, we’re still in the tie. At two goals it is not impossible and we’ve got good goaltending, so hopefully that will give us an opportunity to go out and win.
“It is a tough rink to come and play in Telford. It’s smaller, so you don’t get as much time on the puck, but we’ve got to turn up.
“No disrespect to Milton Keynes and I thought they played very well today, but we never got going. We’ve got to come out hard tomorrow. We have to.”
The first period on Saturday night was a typically frenetic affair, albeit with Milton Keynes enjoying the majority of possession.
Sam Gospel was the hero for Telford early on with string of key saves, before Frantisek Bakrlik broke the deadlock on 18 minutes.
That strike spurred the Tigers into action, as Jonathan Weaver equalised with just seconds of the session remaining.
Telford fared little better in the middle period, however, conceding twice before the 28 minute mark.
Max Birbraer drew a point-blank save from the Milton Keynes netminder on 37 minutes, as the Tigers entered the interval marginally on top.
But the final 20 minutes saw Telford fail to find a way past Dean Skinns, despite often enjoying the best of the play.
Watkins added: “It’s another game of hockey tomorrow night. It’s play-off, it’s do or die and we’ve put ourselves behind the eight-ball.
“If we want to progress to Coventry, we have to find a way out of it.”
On Sunday, the two teams face-off at 6pm, at Telford Ice Rink. For tickets to the home game on Sunday, go to www.tigershockeyuk.com.
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