Mo looks to end on a high

BASINGSTOKE, UK – Steve Moria will lace up his skates up for one final year which he is hoping will be his best so far as player/coach of the Basingstoke Bison. Having seen his side improve in the EPL standings by a place, reach the EPL Cup final and then go a lot closer in the play-off quarter-finals.
He is confident that 2011/2012 will be the year of the Bison and some silverware will be heading to Hampshire for the first time in 11 years. “I am going to play one more season and really want to go out on a high,” said Moria. This season the native of Vancouver finished third in the Bison’s league scoring charts behind Slovak snipers Victor Kubenko and Ondrej Lauko with 72 points. That moved him up to sixth in the all time list with 272 points from 195 games. So early next season he will become only seventh player in the club’s history to make 200 league appearances. He will also no doubt be looking to overhaul good friend and assistant/coach Tony Redmond in the goal scoring stakes. The Scot currently has 145 to his name, while Moria is on 120 one of only eight forwards to have reached the magic three figure mark for Basingstoke. The Bison player/coach confirmed he would be talking to all his squad from the season just gone, as once again he would like to bring back a good core of guys. One player who the Bison fans would love to see return is Slovak forward Kubenko. The import topped both the goal scoring and points for the team and after a slow start in the G column, but by the end of the season had bagged himself five hat-tricks. He capped off a fine first season in a Herd uniform as he was double winner at the recent annual Basingstoke Bison awards as he won the Players’ Player and Supporters Player of the Year awards. The two other player awards up for grabs both went to defencemen as Kurt Reynolds won the Supporters British Player of the Year and Ricky Skene the Coach’s Award winner. Equipment manager Tony Skinns also picked up an award for special recognition for outstanding contribution to the team for his years of service to the Herd. Contact the author Graham.Merry@Prohockeynews.com