Hull Seahawks coach Matty Davies happy to shuffle pack in readiness for Milton Keynes Lightning final conclusion

Head coach Matty Davies said before Wednesday night’s opening instalment of the two-legged encounter that he would likely sideline some of his star names over the course of this weekend.

After today’s visit from Peterborough Phantoms, the Seahawks head to Shropshire to take on Telford Tigers.

Both are immediately below the Seahawks in the regular season standings, but with Davies’s team already assured of fourth spot, he sees little point in tiring out his top players for the more important business of the Cup.

That is likely to mean more ice time for the likes of 18-year-old forward Rhys Edwards, who had come to the fore in the weeks leading up to the final as the Seahawks wrestled with injury and suspension.

Emil Svec, Owen Sobchak and Bobby Chamberlain were key players for Hull on Wednesday but may not figure so much over the course of the next two days, the same can be said for top defensive pair Declan Balmer and Brock Bartholomew who logged plenty of minutes against the Lightning.

The second leg will arrive quickly on Tuesday night and Davies is determined to have his top players in the best possible condition as they look to overturn a one-goal deficit following the 5-4 loss in a pulsating clash on home ice.

“We’ve got two games this weekend where I can rest pretty much the full first line if I think I need to and I probably will do that,” said Davies.

“We’re fourth in the league standings and that isn’t going to change, that is where we’re going to be finishing and we know which play-off group we’ll be going into, so that’s a positive.”

With just under five minutes remaining on Wednesday, the Seahawks looked like they might have taken a one-goal lead into the second leg until two Lightning strikes in the space of six seconds turned momentum against them.

But Davies believes any frustrations over the late drama will be quickly forgotten.

“We’ve got some video to look at and we’ll need to go through a few things but, ultimately, we played really well,” added Davies.

“It’s about fine margins and they can change everything and with those two goals at the end, we could come out of it looking like it’s a negative night but overall, it was a positive night.

“Apart from those few seconds, I felt we played brilliantly. We reacted when we needed to, we didn’t give them a great deal.”