Tigers take win over MK – but lose one more

Tigers coach Tom Watkins will play a waiting game before assessing his short-handed squad, following Sunday night’s bruising 4-2 win over Milton Keynes Lightning.

Max Birbraer in action for Telford Tigers against Milton Keynes Lightning

Watkins saw influential forward Max Birbraer ejected from the game for fighting in the third period, meaning he will be without the Israeli for Wednesday’s trip to Peterborough.

Birbraer’s suspension – alongside that of Blaho Novak – will further restrict Watkins’ options, as he juggles injuries to Jason Silverthorn, Jonathan Weaver, Joe Graham and Phil Hill.

But Watkins backed his remaining players to continue the impressive form they’ve shown over recent weeks.

He said: “Playing on Wednesday night will be tough, as at this time of year you want all your players healthy and playing well. But that just isn’t possible for us at the moment.

“To play back-to-back midweek games right now is asking a lot of the guys, and we’re facing some very good teams. We’ll see where we are on Tuesday, in terms of bodies and numbers of healthy players.

“We will go to Peterborough with our heads held high. The guys have been playing some really good hockey in recent weeks. We were unlucky a few times last night, but we did enough to get the win tonight.

“We can hopefully keep that form going in Peterborough.”

Telford got off to an early start against the Lightning on Sunday night, with Joe Miller scoring the first goal after just 48 seconds.

The Lightning hit back on seven minutes, but neither side created many more quality scoring opportunities in the opening session.

Telford regained the lead on 24 minutes, thanks to Callum Bowley, before Andrei Makrov hit a third for the hosts just six minutes later.

The Estonian bagged his brace on the 31 minutes mark, virtually securing victory for the Tigers.

Milton Keynes scored a late consolation goal, but it wasn’t enough to stop Telford from completing a grand-slam of home wins over the Lightning this season.

But that late fighting penalty for Birbraer, who was reacting to a check from behind, put a dampener on celebrations.

Watkins added: “It was always going to be tough, but we got the result, which was huge for us. The players dug in, worked hard and at times were on the back foot a little.

“Sam Gospel was huge for us tonight and we needed that. We had a really good second period and were able to play the third period off the back of that.”