BASINGSTOKE, UK – Mindy magic was the order of the day on Saturday as defenseman Mindy Kieras scored the game tying and overtime winner for the Basingstoke Bison in Swindon.
The Herd came back from 3-1 down with 10 minutes to play to grab a great victory, their fourth in five games.
The success over the Wildcats saw player-coach Steve Moria have a hand in all four goals scoring the first two and getting assists on both Kierasâ strikes.
Lithuanian Kieras is enjoying a great season in a Bison jersey. He also scored the game tying goal in a Planet Ice Shield game with Milton Keynes late last year.
This time he went one better with two blue line bullets to make sure his side went home with the two points.
âMindy deserved his man-of-the-match award as he scored two great goals. I felt we played a good 60 minute game against the Wildcats and even when we went 3-1, I felt if we could score one goal we would go on and win the gameâ said Moria.
The Swindon goals in the game were scored by Jason Cassells, man-of-the-match Jan Krajicek and Aaron Nell.
The OT victory for Basingstoke went some way to avenge a 3-2 overtime when they were last in the âCats building in November.
Swindon will not have to wait too long to face the Herd again as the sides meet in Basingstoke on Saturday.
This will be the second meeting in Hampshire and the Bison will be keen to repeat their 6-1 victory on Boxing Day.
They will also likely to be boosted by the return of one of their leading scorers in Joe Ciccarello. He has been away on family business in Canada since just before Christmas and has missed the last five games.
Last Sunday, the Bison were due to be in action against the Milton Keynes Lightning, but the clubs agreed to postponed the game for the safety of the supporters.
The Hampshire town having been hit by the most snow since the winter of 1963 and that was before this writer was born, but only just.
Without any thaw. areas surrounding the Arena were very dangerous so forcing the decision.
Just a few weeks earlier Basingstoke hit the national headlines when 2,000 cars were gridlocked on the road system surrounding the town during a snow storm, but by the weekend a thaw saw the games take place.
It is the first time in the clubâs 21 year history that a game has had to be postponed because of this.
In the past a home game with Telford was called off because the Tigers were unable to get out of the Shropshire town due to snow. The Bison themselves had a famous trip to the Sheffield Arena to play the Steelers only to arrive to find that no one else could get to the venue forcing the game to be called off. That left the fans and players to have a snowball fight in the car park, before returning south to a snow free zone.
Contact graham.merry@prohockeynews.com
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