Bison are ready to cause upset

BASINGSTOKE , UK – Underdogs they may be, but the Basingstoke Bison are ready to turn the form book upside down and claim their first silverware in 11 years on Wednesday night in Slough.
 
They travel to the Berkshire side’s rink nicknamed the Hangar as the Jets play there for their biggest game of the season – the second leg of the EPL Cup final.
 
The Bison may trail by one goal, but overturned a similar deficit in Manchester in the semi-final and former Jet Steve Moria would love to claim his first trophy for Basingstoke at his old stamping ground.
 
“Few gave us a chance in Manchester and we won.   As a team we have the belief to do it again. We want to win trophies and this is the first one of the season,” said Bison player/coach Steve Moria.
 
The Herd come into the game after two straight road wins the last being a very impressive 6-3 success in Milton Keynes on Sunday night.
 
Ben Davies and Ciaran Long both scored braces in the victory, while man-of-the-match Viktor Kubenko and Tony Redmond scored the other goals.
 
The Herd were also boosted by the return of team captain Nicky Chinn for this game which means on Wednesday night the team will be at full strength.
 
The victory made sure the Bison finished in fourth spot in the EPL an improvement of one on their first campaign at this level.
 
It was also their first win in MK in three attempts this season which can only be good thing as the teams meet in the play-off quarter-finals on the first weekend of April.
The previous night the Bison suffered their fifth straight home loss, losing out in penalty shots to the visiting Swindon Wildcats.
 
The Herd looked in control of the game leading 2-0 after two periods and 4-2 during the last season, but the ‘Cats clawed their way back and after OT failed to split the teams the shoot-out did as Jan Melichar as the tenth shooter scored the winner to go with a brace during the contest.
 
The other Swindon scorers were Jozef Liska and Joe Baird, while for Basingstoke Davies, Mindy Kieras, Steve Moria and Ollie Bronnimann all found the net.    
 
Contact the author Graham.Merry@Prohockeynews.com