Bison hit by injury blow

BASINGSTOKE UK- Once again it was not the best weekend for the Basingstoke Bison both in results and injuries. On Saturday night, the Bison won at the Swindon Wildcats 8-3 in the club’s first competitive game there in over 10 years. That snapped a two game losing streak, but on  Sunday the Bison failed in their bid to go top of the English Premier League as they lost 5-3 to leaders Milton Keynes Lightning. On the injury front, the good news was the Herd welcomed back experienced defenseman Tony Redmond on Saturday night. The bad news was they lost Basingstoke-born D man Kurt Reynolds, with a broken finger in the same game. So leaving the Bison defense back to four skaters for Sunday’s game with Milton Keynes. That could well have been a major factor in the game, as the visitors’ forwards certainly used the forecheck to the full and gave the Bison blue liners, so little time on the puck behind the net. That said Basingstoke opened the scoring on a four-on-four play, as Joe Ciccarello utilized the extra ice to set-up partner in crime Steve Moria. The current EPL top dogs responded with two goals on the same powerplay from Monir Kalgoum (delayed penalty) and then Adam Carr with a super individual strike. A middle period which the Herd had the edge in, saw them unable to beat Barry Hollyhead while Nick Poole added a third for MK. The Bison once again showed their character as thanks to a couple of powerplay strikes from Ondrej Lauko they levelled the match. At that point, the leaders looked in trouble, but two well worked goals to the man at the back door, saw first Kalgoum and then Ross Bowers wrap up the win. “I  think they forechecked us very hard and that made it hard for us defence. We tried to freshen things up in the third and showed our character by tieing the game, but in the end it they scored again and there was nowhere back when the fifth went in,”  said Bison player/coach Steve Moria, who had felt unwell for the whole of the game The previous night in Swindon, the Bison did win after being 3-1 down to the Wildcats. That was thanks to special team goals, three on the powerplay and two shorthanded, but before that Lauko scored the only goal of the first period. The second session saw seven goals, with the first three going to the home side as Matt Foord, Ryan Aldridge and Raimond Danilics all found the net. The Herd hit back with their first two powerplay goals from Moria and Mindy Kieras before Ciccarello grabbed a shorthanded brace to make it 5-3 at the second buzzer. After Lauko added number six, Ollie Bronnimann scored two more to complete the win. “I felt we played well in the first period, then had a bad spell early in the second, before getting back and dominating for the remainder of the game. It was nice to see Joe score two shorthanded goals which is usual, but I have seen Joe do that a few times in his career now.” Said Moria. This week, the Bison have their first game in the Planet Ice Shield against the Peterborough Phantoms at home and then face a Battle of the Roses weekend facing Manchester Phoenix in Basingstoke and then travelling to Sheffield to face the Scimitars who are on a good run as of late. Contact the author Graham.Merry@prohockeynews.com