Everyone Active Raiders captain Aaron Connolly said it was a case of opportunity lost after seeing his side miss out on the National League play-off finals weekend in Coventry.

Raiders ended the 2023-24 campaign on a winning note, with a 5-3 victory over MK Lightning at the Sapphire Ice & Leisure Centre on Sunday.

But that came after they had suffered a 7-3 defeat in Milton Keynes the night before, which ended their hopes of qualifying for the semi-finals for a second successive season.

And Connolly was clear about where it had gone wrong for Sean Easton's men in post-season play.

"In my opinion the first game of the play-offs at home against Telford is where we dropped the ball," he said, referring to the opening 7-5 defeat against the Tigers, when they conceded four times in the last six minutes.

"If we had won that game, that we led in the dying moments, we would be heading to Coventry, but it wasn't to be."

Successive wins over Swindon on the second weekend had kept their hopes alive, but they needed to repeat that trick in last weekend's double-header with Lightning.

After falling behind with barely four minutes played, they answered with powerplay goals from Jesper Eriksson and Coy Prevost to take a 2-1 lead.

But ex-Raiders forward Harry Gulliver levelled late in the opening period and former Romford junior Toms Rutkis put the hosts ahead early in the middle session.

Connolly squared matters just past the game's midway mark, but Gulliver struck again before the second break.

And the home side beat Ethan James twice in three minutes to move 6-3 up, before adding a late powerplay goal to seal the points which kept their own faint hopes of progress alive.

Lightning needed to win in Romford the next night and hope Telford beat Swindon, but Eriksson put Raiders ahead in the fifth minute.

The visitors beat Brad Windebank just 34 seconds later, then took the lead inside 80 seconds of the middle frame.

But leading scorer Adam Laishram levelled for Raiders, before Tjay Anderson edged them in front with just 16 seconds remaining in the period.

A powerplay goal squared matters early in the final session, before the gloves came off as Brandon Ayliffe tussled with Carter Hamill.

Raiders killed off a hooking penalty against Laishram, before regaining the lead with a delicate finish from Anderson with under 10 minutes to play.

And when Lightning removed goalie Jordan Hedley for an extra skater in the closing stages, Anderson showed plenty of determination to win a race for the puck and forward it goalwards, for Connolly to tap home and secure victory with 28 seconds left on the clock.

"We knew we needed two wins to make it to the final four and MK away is one of the hardest places in the league to get a result," added Connolly.

"Sunday back in Romford was great, though. It took a lot of character to finish the way we did, when we knew our fate was sealed on Saturday.

"The place was rocking and it was a good way to finish the year."

Connolly, Ayliffe and Jacob Ranson finished as ever-presents, appearing in all 64 matches played during the campaign.

But the skipper, now ninth on the all-time scoring list with 316 points (164 goals, 152 assists) in 289 games, was left with mixed feelings.

"I think as a whole the season was very up and down," he said.

"We found some great form at the back end of the season, but as we did in the play-offs our start let us down.

"From myself and all the boys we would just like to thank the Raiders fans for their unwavering support all season long."