BASINGSTOKE, UK – A four point weekend booked the Bison their place in the English Premier League play-offs, as they are now guaranteed a top eight finish.
Currently the Herd are stuck in fifth spot in the standings, despite an excellent run of results since the turn of the year. The Hampshire outfit just can’t seem to close the gap on the top four teams and at the moment they will face the fourth team in a double header showdown for a place in the EPL finals.
This weekend the Bison enjoyed a 5-3 road win at Peterborough and then the following night completed a home sweep against the hard working Sheffield Scimitars with a 4-1 success. It was the league’s leading goal scorer Ondrej Lauko who put the Scims to the sword with a hat-trick to take his tally to 10 goals for the season against the visiting outfit.
The game itself saw Sheffield’s Mark Stewart open the scoring, but the Bison, having only having converted one in nine of their previous powerplay against Sheffield, completed two for two in this game as Lauko took 35 seconds and nine seconds to net with the extra man.
Bison player-coach Steve Moria with a clinical breakaway strike skating out from the sin bin made it 3-1 and then Lauko wrapped up his hat-trick with the empty netter.
“We didn’t play as well as we can tonight, but we will take the victory and it keeps our home record going,” said Moria.
The previous night the Bison boss was full of praise for his side as they produced a great performance in one of the toughest rinks in the country to get a result out of. Despite trailing 3-1 by the middle of the second period as Warren Tait grabbed a brace and James Morgan were on target for the Phantoms. The Bison kept themselves in the game as Ollie Bronnimann in the final minute of the second period added to Moria’s opener to leave it a one goal game going into the final period. From there the Herd dominated as Brits Chris Wiggins, Jamie Line and Bronnimann with his second made sure of the road victory.
“It has to be the best team performance I have ever seen in Peterborough as normally you are out played, out smarted and put under a lot of pressure in their rink. Even when we were losing I felt we were playing well and still had a chance to get the victory which we did,” said Moria
Another plus for the team was the return of gritty British forward Scott Spearing, who had looked to be out for the season due to a knee injury, picked up in the second month of the season. However, an operation before Christmas and a lot of hard work saw Spearing return to action in Peterborough and he was glad to be back.
“It is great to be back playing and not watching from behind the bench. I feel fine and have had no reaction to the injury. I am easing my way back into the line-up and I will flying when we get to play-off time,” said Spearing.
This weekend, the Bison will look to continue their great form against local rivals the Bracknell Bees the visitors on Saturday. The Bees are currently scrapping with Swindon for the final play-off spot, so the Herd will have to be on their guard if they want to keep ther excellent winning home record going.
Then on Sunday the Bison make their final league trip of the season to Manchester, a team they could face in the first round of the play-offs. Having lost the first four gams against the Phoenix this season, the Herd won the last encounter 2-1 on home ice and will hope they can repeat that again.
Contact the author Graham.Merry@Prohockeynews.com
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