Bison face Flames showdown

BASINGSTOKE, UK – The Bison face a showdown with the Guildford Flames for the place as one of the final four at the English Premier League Championship finals this weekend.
Games between these local rivals have been very close this season with five of the six being decided by a single goal.
The Flames won the series 4-2, but lost in the team’s last encounter to the Bison 4-3. So expect this two game mini series to go right down to the wire with some very tense hockey. Both teams are looking forward to bumper crowds and tickets are already being snapped up.
The Herd’s rivals have the luxury of having six imports on their roster, but will only be able to play four in each game. That is a nice headache to have, but could still backfire on the team if the wrong choice is made.
The Bison are set to be at full strength as British power forward Chris Wiggins returns to the Basingstoke line-up after serving a four match ban. His hard hitting no nonsense approach is sure to unsettle a few players over the two games against his former club Guildford. Last weekend, The Bison welcomed back Canadian sharp shooter Joe Ciccarello back into their line-up having sat out 14 games with a knee injury. The forward scored in both games including the opening strike at Milton Keynes as the visitors led at the first buzzer despite being out shot 24-9.
The League champions came out storming as the Lightning struck four times thanks to Lukas Zatopek, Monir Kalgoum, Adam Carr and Michael Wales. Steve Moria gave the Bison some hope and with news arriving in Milton Keynes that both Manchester and Guildford had lost the Herd had a chance to leapfrog both and take third spot, if they could win.
Sadly despite their best efforts they were unable to do so and this made Sunday night’s game an important one for Basingstoke as they wanted a win going into their play-off campaign. Their opponents the Swindon Wildcats arrived in town also on a mission as if Bracknell won their final game, they would miss out on a play-off spot all together.
After the first 20 minutes in which the Bison dominated they only had one goal to show for their efforts from Mindy Kieras. The Wildcats hauled themselves back into the contest after a great solo strike from Raimonds Danilics. The Bison edged in front thanks to Ciccarello’s second goal of the weekend which was a super shot into the roof of the net.

That left the score at 2-1 after 40 minutes and the game evenly poised, but that was all to change as the leagues leading scorer Ondrej Lauko turned the game on its head with his eighth hat-trick of the season to finish with 63 goals from 54 games. Moria and Line also chipped in as the Herd ran out easy winners 7-1 and just the result they were looking for ahead of their Guildford.
For Swindon there was a silver lining after the defeat as Bracknell also lost so the Wildcats nabbed the final play-off spot. With Manchester and Guildford both winning their final regular season game, the Herd had to settle for fifth place, but they were only a point away from third, which will be looked upon as a job well done in their first season in the EPL.
“Having Joe back this weekend was a great for us and I was only looking at playing half a game in MK and half against Swindon, but he came through okay and to be honest was our best forward in the Saturday.
“The victory and the way we played against Swindon was just what I wanted ahead of the Guildford game, said player-coach Moria about the weekend.
“We have had close games with them all season and see no reason that will change over this weekend. It is going to be very tight in both games,” said Moria about their pending clash with the Flames.
Contact the author Graham.Merry@Prohockeynews.com