BASINGSTOKE, UK- A penalty shoot-out loss on Sunday night denied the Bison a four point weekend, but the three they did secured increased their lead over fourth placed Slough Jets to two points with both sides now having played 39 games.
The evening also saw second placed Guildford defeated in Peterborough. A sudden losing streak if unlikely for the Surrey side could yet open the door for Basingstoke, Slough or even Milton Keynes to steal away the runners-up spot.
At present the Herd are focussed on making sure they finished third which is three way battle with Slough and MK and that looks set to go all the way to the final two weekends of the regular season as the Lightning face the Herd twice and the Jets once.
On Sunday, it was MK who beat the Bison for the second time this campaign on home ice, but only after a penalty shoot-out thanks to captain Adam Carr and Blaz Emersic who both found a way past Dean Skinns in the visitors net.
The Herd shooters of Ollie Bronnimann and Ondrej Lauko were not so lucky as Barry Hollyhead came up with the saves.
The scoring in that game all came in the first period and all from British forwards. The Bison found themselves 2-0 within six minutes thanks to Nicky Chinn and Ollie Bronnimann, before Adam Brittle and Carr levelled the game.
From there the home side had more of the play, but solid defending kept them out and in the end penalty shots decided it.
“I felt we played our best game in the past two years in Milton Keynes and was disappointed we did not manage to take away the two points,” said Bison player/coach Steve Moria.
The previous night on home ice Basingstoke ran out 5-3 winners over the Sheffield Steeldogs as player/coach Steve Moria grabbed his first hat-trick of the season.
The Yorkshire outfit under new coach Andre Payette certainly put up a fight and scored the opening goal thanks to a great individual strike from Janis Ozolins.
Moria equalised with his first of a trio and then the club’s leading scorer Viktor Kubenko edged the Bison in front.
This time Sheffield drew level from Lloyd Gibson and Ozolins second put the Steeldogs in front.
Brit Ollie Bronnimann continued his scoring streak as he tied the game by the first period and as in MK, they the Basingstoke defence never gave up another goal all night.
They had British stay-at-home defenceman Sam Oakford back in their line-up as well as forward Ciaran Long both back from shoulder injuries, while Steven Osman also guested from ENL outfit the Bristol Pitbulls.
The return of Oakford meant for the first time for weeks the Bison had a five man defensive unit.
“Our four D has been excellent over the last few weeks, but having Oaky (Sam Oakford) back is a great boost and means we can spread the ice time around,” said Bison boss Moria.
The Herd went on to win the game thanks to two clinical strikes from Moria one in the second period and then an empty netter right at the end.
“It was great to celebrate my birthday this way. I have been hitting the goalies a lot just lately so it was nice to see the pucks go in tonight,” said Moria.
This weekend, the Bison will be looking for maximum points, but have two tricky games starting at the Link Centre on Saturday with a trip to the Swindon Wildcats.
Games in the Wiltshire rink between these teams are always hard to predict with the series split 1-1 at the moment and the Wildcats have beaten the Bison in their last two meetings.
Then on Sunday, the Herd will hope to silence the roar of the Telford Tigers.
So far this season, Basingstoke have reeled off four straight wins over the Shropshire outfit, but struggled last time in their own barn.
Telford produced one of the shock results of the season last Sunday when they turned over the Slough Jets 4-3.
So the Bison will need to get hold of this game early on to stop the visitors feeling they can cause another upset and win in Basingstoke for the first time in many years.
Contact the author Graham.Merry@Prohockeynews.com
