guildford flames defeat
Dismay for the Guildford Flames, who were knocked out of the English Premier Ice Hockey League before the finals at Coventry
It's the first time in the history of Guildford's league membership that they won't make it to the finals, having been defeated in their home ground of Spectrum Leisure Complex by the Milton Keynes Lightning. The two-match quarter final ended with a loss for Guildford in both matches, first 3-2 and then 4-3 in Milton Keynes' favour.
Paul Dixon, the Flames' player-head coach, said that it would be "an understatement" to say that the club was upset with the results, as they believed they'd done enough to secure the series over both games - they "simply could not solve a hot netminder".
"We outshot them in 5 out of 6 periods, and carried the play for a very large portion of the series. We created enough opportunities to win, but we simply did not score on enough of them to ensure we moved on. I cannot fault our effort or our willingness to play in the hard areas to make something happen".
Lightning grabbed a 2-0 lead early in the decisive game, courtesy of their previous advantage and a goal by Blaz Emersic in the first ten minutes. Scoring by Branislav Kvetan, Marcus Kristoffersson and Andy McKinney saw the Flames steadily claw back to a draw, and then to one point ahead, despite the efforts of Curtis Huppe, himself a former Flame.
It was only in the last ten minutes that Lewis Hook and Emersic slammed two goals into the Flames net, silencing more than two-thousand Flames fans and dashing their hopes for an appearance in the final.
Dixon offered congratulations to the Milton Keynes side, wishing them all the best next weekend as they "deserve a spot in the finals".
As for his own team, they "can enter the off season break knowing we left it all on the ice, and don’t need to look back with any regrets about the process".
You can find out more about the Guildford Flames on their website
The club's sponsors are IMP UK, who work with ice media production for leisure and sport and awarded the club £5,000 after their second-place finish in last year's league
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