An-netts a shut-out for Bison

BASINGSTOKE, UK – A Bison double header weekend with the Slough Jets and still the series is tied 2-2 for the season, between these local rivals.
Honours this time around went to the home teams on each night with Slough winning the first game 5-2 and the Herd replying with a 3-0 success 24 hours later.
So the Bison experienced a mixed bag of emotions from the weekend and certainly the Jets won in a ‘Blaz of Glory’ on Saturday night as Slovenian import and Slough’s top goal scorer Blaz Emersic bagged himself a hat-trick, this after Billy Phillips had opened the scoring and Peter Jasik netted the other goal.
The Bison goals came from Tom Long and Mindy Kieras who both shared 1+1 for the evening.
Even more bad news for the Bison was the loss of Canadian forward Joe Ciccarello to a knee injury during the game. The club are waiting on scan results to see the extent of the damage and the length of time the sharp shooter will have to sit out.
“We were out played in this game as Slough. They came hard at us from the first face-off. I felt we still had a chance at 4-1, but the fifth goal killed us, “said Bison boss Moria
The following night, the Herd having lost back-to-back games in Milton Keynes and Slough gave Tom Annetts his first start of 2010 for the Bison and the goaltender did not disappoint. Spurred on, no doubt, by facing Gregg Rockman, who he was back-up to last season in Bracknell.
The Herd nettie produced a great display with 37 saves to guide Basingstoke to a 3-0 victory. Rockman was left with stats of 21 saves in the defeat. It was Bison’s second shut-out of the season and in recent weeks Davey Lawrence just could not buy another one.
“This was in no way blaming Davey for the defeat as he had about 25 quality chances on him the night before and has been playing well for us. It was just a matter of changing things up and I think Tom is the best back-up in this league and he proved it tonight, “ said Moria.
“I feel great. I was so pleased to get the start and just couldn’t wait to get out there. I had the bounces tonight and the guys cleared the pucks away from the net for me and it was great to get a shut-out,” said man-of-the-match Annetts, after his first clean sheet of the season.

A switch of line match-ups on Sunday night proved to be the recipe for victory as the top scoring Bison line having suffered an offensively poor night in Slough was cooking again grabbing all three goals in this contest.
English Premier League’s league’s leading scorer Ondrej Lauko added another to his tally as did captain Nicky Chinn.
However, the goal of the game was the second one, as defenseman Kurt Reynolds produced a text book rush from behind his own net before sending over an inch perfect pass for Steve Moria to score.
It is worth buying the Bison TV DVD of the game for that pure moment of magic and it has to be a contender for goal of the season. Fans can also view the goal here
While the Bison scoring line will take the credit on the scoresheet, the victory was a team effort and it was tireless work of the all British line of Ollie Bronimann, Andrew Hemmings and Shaun Thompson against the Emersic line that under pinned the victory.
This weekend, the Bison face a tough trip to Peterborough on Saturday against a Phantoms looking to reverse a 6-3 defeat earlier in the campaign in a rink which is never easy to come away with the points.
Then on Sunday, the Herd will look to maintain their impressive home ice form when the Sheffield Scimitars are in town. The previous four games between these sides have been won by the home team, so Basingstoke will hope that becomes five this weekend. Contact the author Graham.Merry@Prohockeynews.com