BASINGSTOKE, UK- What are the chances of finding a hole in the net during a penalty shoot-out? Pretty much impossible, but not if you are the Basingstoke Bison’s player-coach Steve Moria. That is exactly what happened to him in Saturday’s contest against their arch rivals the Guildford Flames.
The sharp shooter fired the puck through the legs of Flames cageman Mark Lee only for it to go through the net and hit the back board. Referee Joy Tottman disallowed the goal, deciding not to seek the advise of the goal judge, who had the best seat in the house to view the puck entering the night.
Moria would have tied the shoot-out 1-1 if he had been allowed to stand, but instead Nathan Rempel’s earlier strike proved to be the game winner in a game that had almost seen the Flames hopes gone up in smoke a couple of times.
“The guys battled hard tonight and we deserved something out of the game. I went for the five hole in the shoot-out and thought I had scored and just wondered what all the Guildford fans were cheering about and then realised it had not be given. I think everyone in the building saw it was a goal.” said Moria.
Steve Moria found the boards through the net
The odds had looked stacked against the Herd at the opening face-off, as they faced a full strength Guildford line-up, minus influential import Mindy Kieras, forced out of the line-up due to illness reducing the Bison D to four once again.
The home side also had two forwards missing Scott Spearing and Chris Wiggins, so Steven Fisher from Cardiff’s English National League team made his debut for the team and a dream one at that as scored twice and got the man-of-the-match award.
The Brit in fact scored on his first shift in a brilliant first period for the Bison as they led 3-0 at the first hooter with Moria netting a brace.
Flaming mad Guildford player-coach Paul Dixon read the riot act in the break and they scored twice in 35 seconds from Rempel and Dixon.
The Herd looked shaken, but hit back as Andy Hemmings and Fisher extended the lead to 5-2. However, the Flames offence was on fire for the last period and goals from two former Bison stars Neil Liddiard and Gary Clarke along with Rempel’s game tier took the match into overtime.
Rempel had the best chance to win it in the extra period, but Davey Lawrence came up with a great save to deny him and that led to the penalty shots and controversy over shadowing what was a great game.
On following night, the Bison headed north to face league leaders the Manchester Phoenix and former NHLer Ed Courtenay once again was a thorn in the Herd’s side with a hat-trick to take his tally to nine goals in four games so far this season against Basingstoke.
Former Shark Ed Courtenay now tearing up the EPL
His trio came in the second session after team mate Adam Walker had grabbed a brace in the first. Despite this the Bison pulled the game back to 5-4 just 68 seconds into the final period, as Nicky Chinn added to earlier markers from Moria, Joe Ciccarello and Tom Long.
However, the Phoenix added a sixth from Jaakko Hagelberg to win the league series with their fourth victory out of four over the Bison.
“I could not fault the effort from my team and to be honest Ed Courtenay and Tony Hand were the difference between the sides.”
This weekend, the Bison hope to bounce back to winning ways when basement side Romford are in town and then on Sunday they face a critical clash in Peterborough. This match doubles up as a league and cup clash, with Basingstoke still in with a chance of making the semi-finals, if they can win their final three group games in the competition.
Contact the author Graham.Merry@prohockeynews.com
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