Bees slump to double defeat

BRACKNELL, UK – Four goals from Ondrej Lauko condemned Bracknell to a disappointing weekend as they lost ground in the race for the final English Premier League playoff spot. The Swindon Wildcats closed the gap with a humiliating 8-0 win over The Bees on Saturday night with Aaron Neil grabbing a hat-trick. Bracknell had the chance to bounce back against high-flying Basingstoke, but despite leading, Bracknell came away empty-handed. Bees captain Terry Miles said: “We can take a few positives from Sunday’s game but not from Saturday. We really didn’t show up to work hard and do the things we’re good at.” Basingstoke are unbeaten against The Bees this season and it looked set to continue when Andrew Hemmings put The Bison ahead on a quick break after being fed by Chris Wiggins. The Bees were low on confidence following their performance against Swindon, but responded brilliantly thanks to Ashley Calvert and Callum Best. Great work by Calvert forced a save and Best was on hand to tie up the scores. Moments later, Best returned the favour as Calvert finished with a smart shot to the top shelf. Best said: “It was a great response after going down one nil and it was nice to score a goal as it has been a while. It was good for our line to put some points up as me and Ash (Calvert) were connecting well.”

Despite The Bees starting the second period with a power play, Basingstoke scored shorthanded when Lauko got his first of the game. The Bees took little time to respond and took advantage of a 5-on-3. Jaroslav Cesky’s shot fell kindly to Michal Pinc who gave the home side a 3-2 lead and Cesky his 100th point of the season. Carl Ambler was keeping The Bees ahead, making save after save and covering up the puck well. However, Ambler was unable to hold on to a stinging shot by Mindaugas Kieras and Shaun Thompson scored from close range. Bracknell were perhaps fortunate to be level going into the third period but their discipline and good goaltending had kept them in the game. However, The Bees gave the puck away cheaply and Lauko easily gave Basingstoke the lead. The hosts looked for a way back into the game with Cesky leading the way as he hit a bullet against the bar. All of Bracknell’s pressure was in vain as The Bison broke quickly and Lauko made it 5-3 with his hat-trick goal. Bracknell put some solid pressure on the away side, but once again Basingstoke hit them on the break as Lauko scored his forth of the night, his second shorthanded. At 6-3 The Bees looked down and out, but Adam Bicknell gave the home fans hope, scoring after some nimble puck control. With the momentum shifting to favour Bracknell they needed some good luck. However, some strange refereeing decisions by Nigel Boniface halted any chance of a Bracknell revival. Boniface gave some bizarre penalties on Bees netminder Carl Ambler for tripping and Michal Pinc for high-sticking before sending Ambler and Danny House off with misconducts. There was a lot of confusion over why the penalties were given, but any chance of a comeback was ended. Terry Miles explained: “I’m not entirely sure what happened with the referee. He seemed to take offence to something we did as he penalised us heavily at the end and it was hard for us to keep focused and not get frustrated. Maybe he was still annoyed with the traffic he had to suffer on the way in or maybe he couldn’t get a parking spot at the rink.” Despite the confusion that dominated the end of the game, Bracknell found Basingstoke’s quick counter-attack led by Ondrej Lauko too hot to handle. Miles added: “The referee’s not the reason we lost, although it didn’t help. Ultimately we’re responsible for the score line and we made too many mistakes to keep ourselves in it.” Contact the author david.bol@prohockeynews.com