Published: Saturday, 19th January, 2008 21:36
Jets power to MK win
By Observer Sport
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English Premier Ice Hockey League
Slough Jets 7, Milton Keynes Lightning 1
THE Slough Jets scored another important victory against one of their title rivals with a comprehensive 7-1 win over Milton Keynes Lightning tonight (Saturday).
The game failed to live up to its billing as a contest between two of the English Premier League's heavyweights simply because of Slough’s outright dominance.
They never looked vulnerable against a team that still lie above them in the table. And Milton Keynes failed to fire in any department.
Nevertheless, this was the third time in seven days the Jets have taken all the points against one of the teams around them at the top of the table and certainly bodes well for their silverware bid this season.
The Jets took control of the game early on after ending the first period 4-1 up.
An open start initially suggested repeat of last week’s epic against Guildford as Ales Parez and Gary Clarke tested Jets goalie Dean Skinns.
However, penalties started coming thick and fast and this suited Slough, who looked better equipped in the special teams department.
Nicky Chinn was in a stubborn mood from the off and he opened the scoring with a well-placed shot above the shoulder of Barry Holyhead on 3.43.
It was 2-0 less than a minute later when Kevin Phillips found the same corner first time after a raking pass from Steve Moria.
A mistake by Dean Skinns allowed Milton Keynes back into the game.
He failed to gather a rebound off the back wall and allowed the puck to squirm along the goal-line.
Somehow Nick Poole failed to nudge it over, but luckily for Lightning, Ross Bowers was on hand to finish the job.
The Jets did not dwell on this and hit straight back through the impressive Chinn’s second of the night.
Slough were showing a great deal more composure than they did against both Guildford and Sheffield last week. Their passing was much neater and they displayed much more control in possession.
Nowhere was this more apparent than their fourth goal.
Patient work between Moria and Blaz Emersic moved the puck to Les Millie before Paddy Ward drilled a diagonal pass across the net, which his head coach buried at the second attempt.
The Jets started the second period defending a Guildford five-on-three powerplay but, despite immediately picking up another penalty, never really looked threatened.
In fact the passage of play ended with Slough stretching their lead at 23.42 when Zoran Kozic, who worked hard in every area all night, converted a pass from Moria.
The next 15 minutes remained goalless despite the sides continuing to trade penalties.
If the first period belonged to Chinn, the second belonged to Kozic and he broke the deadlock just over a minute from the buzzer with a deserved second goal, deflecting a hard shot from Moria that would otherwise have sailed wide of Holyhead’s net.
It took just five seconds into the third period of this penalty-littered match for the next offence to be called. But, to be fair to referee Smith, it was a pretty clear-cut case of hooking from Jan Krajicek, who made his way to the penalty box with little complaint.
Skinns could not keep hold of a shot during the resulting powerplay and the Jets were very lucky not to find their lead reduced.
Fortunately it did not set the tone for the rest of the period, which remained relatively penalty-free and free-flowing.
There was very little action at either end and the only further goal came from Moria to cap off yet another influential performance.
He was given all the time in the world to pick his spot during Slough’s only powerplay in the period.
Further Details
Rebels and Rams share points