BASINGSTOKE, UK – The Basingstoke Bison enjoyed their first four point weekend of the season as they beat the Guildford Flames 3-2 after a shoot-out and then won in regulation 3-2 at Telford.
The winning double took their current winning streak to four games, but only saw them climb up to seventh in the EPL standings.
Their success over Guildford was only their second win in 10 home league games against their Surrey-based rivals.
Bison British forward Jacob Heron with his sixth goal of the season opened the scoring before Flames Stuart Potts tied the game by the first buzzer.
The home grabbed a 2-1 lead as Tony Redmond, the Bison all-time top British league goal scorer netted his first for this campaign and number 146 in total.
Guildford the came out and dominated the final period with Rick Plant twice denied by sharp netminding from Matt Colclough.
However, the Flames levelled from Paul Dixon on the what is against the Bison is a rare powerplay strike. The Herd having killed the previous 22 powerplays.
That sent the game into overtime which failed to split the teams so setting up the shoot-out which saw Ollie Bronnimann failed with the opening shot for the Basingstoke and then Curtis Huppe pinged the crossbar for Guildford.
Steve Moria drew netminder Mark Lee into commiting himself before firing over the prone cageman.
Former Bison star forward Greg Chambers who has been blanked in two games so far this season at his old stamping ground saw his shot go wide off the pads of Colclough, so leaving Joe Miller to make sure of the win as he beat Lee high on his blocker side.
“That was probably our best game of the season so far. There was a big crowd in tonight which made for a good atmosphere and I am sure most of the 1,200 went home happy,” said Bison player/coach Moria.
The following night on paper should have been an easier game, but it did not turn out that way in Telford as the Tigers roared early on as Josh Bruce and Scott McKenzie both scored to give their side a 2-0 advantage at the first buzzer.
The Herd out shot the home side 21-5 in the middle session, but only had a Daniel Volrab goal to show for their efforts.
Then as the 11 skater Tigers team ran out of steam, Miller pounced twice for the Bison with the winning goal coming back off the post and hitting the back skate of goalie Declan Ryan sending the puck back into the net with less than two minutes left.
“We got better as the game went on in Telford. We knew it was not going to be easy as they are a strong hard working team and will win a lot of hockey games this season,” said Moria.
The game saw Viktor Kubenko suffer an injury after a low hit from Ryan Selwood which has left a question mark over whether the Slovak forward will be fit for this weekend’s encounters on the road at Slough and at home to Swindon.
Current league leaders Slough have won nine of their last 10 outings as once again Doug Sheppard has proved to have a magic touch.
The former Bison favourite guided Basingstoke to their best Elite League finish and currently has the Jets flying home.
This fixture is always a juicy one due to so many players have worn both Bison and Jets jerseys in the past.
When they met in Basingstoke earlier in the season in a game where team defense was thrown out the window, the Herd threw away a three goal lead as they lost in a high scoring encounter 7-6.
That is the same amount of goals the Bison have conceded in last four games in total so the Jets may well find life a lot more difficult this time around.
However, they are playing in their own barn which is smaller than the Basingstoke ice pad so a close contest is expected.
On Sunday night, the Bison will hope to repeat their 5-2 success over the Swindon Wildcats from earlier in the season, but with the addition of new ‘Cats forward Aaron Nell that is not going to easy.
The son of Basingstoke championship winning forward Steve Nell, he scored four times on his debut weekend back as he bolster the second Swindon scoring line.
So giving the ‘Cats a lot more offensive bite and once again former Bison boss Ryan Aldridge would love to get one over on his former team.
Strangely his side have played a lot better on Sundays recording road wins in Slough and Milton Keynes.
In Basingstoke he would love to complete a very impressive hat-trick, while the Herd themselves will be looking to make it three home wins on the trot.
Contact the author Graham.Merry@Prohockeynews.com
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