BASINGSTOKE, UK – The Bison were unable to set a new EPL club record as they suffered a narrow 3-2 defeat at the hands of the visiting Sheffield Steeldogs on Boxing Day.
The home side have chalked up 10 straight wins at home with a victory over their nearest title rivals the Guildford Flames were then unable to silence the ‘Dogs.
The Yorkshire side had drawn a blank for the whole of December so this belated Christmas present was very well received.
It was the Herd who opened the scoring from Greg Owen and then the Bison penalty kill which has been running at an awesome 92 per cent came unstuck as Sheffield netted two powerplay strikes from Lloyd Gibson and Pavel Gomeniuk.
The Herd looked to have sent the game into overtime when Joe Miller scored a late equaliser at 57:31.
Sheffield coach Andre Payette called an immediate time out and it did the trick as on the very next shift Edgars Bebris came up with the game winner.
“We were out worked and out played in our own rink and they should not happen,” said a very disappointed Bison player/coach Doug Sheppard.
Sheffield certainly came and played the game as they avoided the sin bin giving up just two powerplays compared to 11 on their last visit.
The Herd had been looking to bounce back to winning ways three days later but instead lost out in penalty shoot-out to the Milton Keynes Lightning for the second time this season.
Once again the fifth shooter proved to be the telling one as Kamil Tvrdek scored the winner, while last time around it had been Adam Brittle.
In a very even game throughout the sides swapped goals from start to finish with MK taking the lead three times from Nick Poole, Leigh Jamieson and Tvrdek, while Greg Chambers, Doug Sheppard and Joe Rand provided the equalising strikes.
So the game was decided by a penalty shoot-out which saw Bison’s Chambers, Jaroslav Cesky and Joe Miller all hitting the post while for the home side Blaz Emersic and Adam Carr failed to find the net, but Tvrdek did not.
“I was looking for us to bounce back and we did that in Milton Keynes. We may not have started well but in the end we deserved something from the game,” said Bison boss Sheppard.
The major minus from the whole evening was the loss of top British defenceman Kurt Reynolds with a broken fibula which happened in the first period.
He joins Andy Melachrino on the injury list and the pair both miss the Bison’s next game which is a road trip to Swindon on Wednesday.
The Herd currently led the series 2-1 over the Wildcats and after two losses Basingstoke are keen to return to winning ways as soon as possible to keep their title ambitions for 2013 on track.
Contact the author Graham.Merry@Prohockeynews.com
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