Bison stumble

BASINGSTOKE UK: The Bison suffered their first winless weekend of the current English Premier League campaign, as they lost 5-4 to the Guildford Flames in regulation time and then 6-5 to the Manchester Phoenix in overtime. The loss in Altrincham against the Phoenix was a real heartache for the visitors as they  had got off to a good start with Andrew Hemmings helping himself to a brace, before Adam Walker pulled on back for Manchester. Bison summer signing Sam Zajac with his first goal of the season restored the two goal advantage by end of the first period, which had also seen Chris Wiggins and Phoenix’s Andre Payette pick up double roughing minors.
The second session, saw Manchester now minus Greg Wood after he suffered a bad cut to his face, narrowed the lead as Walker scored his second. Bison’s man-of-the-match Joe Ciccarello moved the score to 4-2, before Tony Hand reduced the lead to one again. Basingstoke’s hopes in the middle session were no helped as Slovak sniper Ondrej Lauko sat a 10-minute misconduct penalty for hitting the puck after whistle which he never heard due to a loud announcement over the PA system. 
The final period opened with Manchester tieing the game for the first time from Hand, but the Bison came again and Ciccarello’s second looked to have won the match for Basingstoke with under five minutes left on the clock. However, in a game which was very one sided  on powerplays, the Phoenix having seven to the Bison none. Powerplay number six of the night, gave Manchester the chance to tie the game again from Iain Bowie and send it into overtime.
Most referees at this point let the teams decide the winner, as any penalty call is a massive one. Unfortunately, referee Dave Goodwin decided to ignore that rule and gave the Phoenix a seventh powerplay from which they scored the winner from Andre Mattsson at 62:19.
“This was a game we deserved something from, but it is frustrating only to get the single point, after we did so well early on,” said Bison player/coach Steve Moria.
The previous night, the Bison winning streak of seven games went up in smoke at home to the Guildford Flames. The final result was 5-4, in a game where each side had five powerplays unlike the following night. The visitors had the better of the early exchanges with Tom Duggan certainly catching the eye and drawing the first penalty. Just seconds after it expired, Rick Plant opened the scoring for the Flames. The Bison levelled with their own extra man as Mindy Kieras low shot hit the net past former Basingstoke player Dean Skinns. By the first buzzer, Guildford led 2-1 as excellent spade work from Paul Dixon set Rob Lamey. The visitors extended their lead to two, thanks to a clinical Stuart Potts strike, but Moria reduced it to one, with 20 minutes to play.
Martin Masa was first to strike in the final period to make 4-2, before the Herd’s Tom Long reduced the lead once more. Potts with his second gave Guildford a match winning 5-3 advantage and even if Ollie Bronnimann scored against his former club, the Bison could not force the game into overtime.
“We needed to come out and dominate from the start in this game. We failed to do that and paid the price. It is all about playing 60 minutes not 40,”  said Moria.
Contact the author graham.merry@prohockeynews.com