It was hard to digest the fact that one side are tailed off at the foot of the table while the other are at the top.

The opening period remained goalless, but the second started badly for Bees with Jon Weaver giving Tigers the lead after only 19 seconds.

Mettam pulled off two more good shots before James Galazzi was ejected from the game for a high sticks major penalty, giving Tigers a five-minute powerplay.

Telford bossed possession, but managed to beat Mottram only once more in this period, courtesy of a Weaver slapshot.

However, less than a minute later Bees pulled a goal back. Lukas Smital’s shot was saved by Tom Murdy, but JJ Pitchley was there to bury the rebound.

It got even better for Bracknell in the third period. Pavel Strycek let fly from the blue-line and Radek Hubacek tipped the shot home to level the score at 2-2.

Lifted by equaliser, Bees pushed looked dangerous in attack for a time, but back came Telford and Mettam was in the thick of the action.

He made one fine save before being hit in the head for which he required treatment. From the resulting face-off a quick shot saw Dan Davies collide with Mettam, who went down again and need more attention.

Tigers kept the pressure and regained the lead when a shot was deflected under Mettam’s legs.

Bees twice had the advantage of powerplay and made it pay on the second occasion thanks to Radek Hubacek’s swift break and finish.

Despite late chances for both sides the 60 minutes expired, taking the game into overtime, but it failed to produce the deciding goal.

So it came down to penalty shots. After three each, the score stood at 1-1 and the next 10 attempts failed to hit the target.

Telford’s Dan Davies found a way past Mettam, which put pressure on Josh Smith, but his shot went wide and so it was heart-break for Bees.

Mettam, who faced a total of 47 shots during the evening, was named Bees’ man of the match.

Bracknell Bees 3 MK Lightning 4 THREE goals in the second period were not quite enough to prevent Bees losing 4-3 to Milton Keynes Lightning at The Hive on Saturday.

They were trailing 2-0 at the time, with Chris Wiggins, who seized onto a rebound off keeper Alex Mettam’s pads, and Blaz Emersic, with a deflection, giving Lightning the lead in the opening period.

But Bees came storming out of the blocks in the second period and needed just over a minute to halve their deficit when Lukas Smital finished off a good move.

Bees kept up the pressure and drew level as Danny Ingoldsby finished well following a pass from Matt Towalski.

Lightning hit back, forcing Mettam into making several good saves, but the next goal went to Bees with young Vanya Antonov poking it through Stephen Walls pads in a one-on-one situation.

But a quick Lightning break caused confusion in front of the Bees net and Adam Carr took advantage to make it 3-3.

Play swung from end to end in the third period with Mettam the busier netminder.

With just under five minutes to go a penalty on Pitchley for slashing saw the Lightning back on the powerplay.

The visitors sensed their chance and piled on the pressure, but Mettam was in top form.

However, the netminder was beaten four minutes from time with Emersic forcing the puck home from a scramble to give Lightning victory.

Bees didn’t give the game up and good efforts from Smital and Hubacek were kept out by Wall.

Their man-of-the-match award went to Mettam, who faced 27 shots in all.