BASINGSTOKE, UK – The return of Viktor Kubenko has certainly got the Basingstoke Bison back on track as since his return they have won two of their last three games.
The Slovak forward has netted four times since return including a hat-trick on his first game back against the Swindon Wildcats.
In that game, the Herd looked like they were heading for defeat as trailed 2-0 early in the second period after Jaroslav Cesky and James Knight netted.
With the Bison often playing with four forwards and just one defenseman the writing seemed to be on the wall again.
However, a Kubenko double in the space of three minutes in the second period turned the game on its head.
Within the first minute of the final period Kubenko robbed Jonas Hoog and set up Ollie Bronnimann for the game winner.
British forward Liam Chong back from concussion then added a fourth for Bison, before man-of-the-match Kubenko wrapped up the scoring with his hat-trick strike in a 5-2 win.
That gave the Bison faithful fresh hope ahead of a double header weekend against Manchester with the first game on home ice.
With Manchester minus their two import defenseman the odds were stacked up against the visitors.
However, captain Luke Boothroyd led the blue line brigade and Manchester clogged up the neutral zone leaving the home side unable to produce clear cut chances.
After 40 minutes of the game the sides were locked at 1-1, after Tony Hand gave the visitors the lead before Steve Moria equalised.
Moria then put his side ahead, but before they could build on it and force Manchester to play a more open game they equalised from Martin Cingel.
From there it all went wrong for the home side as despite Dean Skinns making a brilliant stop to deny Stephen Wallace’s breakaway, James Archer netted the rebound.
After that Cingel and the an empty netter from Juraj Faith made sure the reigning league champions left Basingstoke with the points.
The following night it was a different story as Matt Colclough recorded the Bison’s first shut-out of the season as he made 36 saves in a 3-0 victory.
It was the club’s 30th shut-out and included in that was three others against Manchester by Curtis Cruickshank.
The first was also being a 36 shot shut-out in the Elite League in 2003 amazing also saw the Bison win 3-0.
It was special teams that won the game on Sunday Marcel Petran scored on the powerplay either side of shorthanded strikes from Joe Miller and Kubenko.
“Having Kubenko back has certainly helped us and against Swindon he got us the goals that got us back in the game.
“After losing to Manchester in the first game I was pleased to win in their barn.
Matt (Colclough) came up with the big saves when we needed them and from that confidence builds.
“It was a fast entertaining game. We did well on special teams and killed off some more penalties it must be about 28 in a row now,” said Bison player/coach Moria.
The Bison have just one game this weekend against the Peterborough Phantoms, which makes it even more important to win.
The visiting outfit enjoyed success last Saturday over their arch rivals the Milton Keynes Lightning.
The Herd will be hoping to stop their recent run of win one lose one and the history books indicate the Bison should win since Peterborough have lost in Basingstoke on their last 17 visits with their last win being in 1993.
Contact the author Graham.Merry@Prohockeynews.com
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