Bison beef up forward line

BASINGSTOKE, UK- The Bison have added some massive offensive weapons to their forward line this week with the additions of two Slovakian imports, their best British scorer from last season and a Great Britain junior international.
The latest players to join the Herd are imports Viktor Kubenko and last season’s leading scorer Ondrej Lauko, along with Brits Ollie Bronnimann and Callum Best.
Of the quartet only Kubenko is new to Britain and the native of Zvolen SVK stands 6ft 3in, meaning the team now have three six foot plus forwards.
Like last season’s Bison scoring sensation Lauko, he arrives at the Herd after two years in the Polish League.
In fact he played against his new Slovakian team mate in season 2008-2009, when playing for Naprzod Janow and Kubenko for Podhale Nowy Targ.
Their stats were almost identical and Bison fans will hope with Lauko’s scoring record last season, that the Bison player-coach Steve Moria has uncovered another real gem.
Before his two years in Poland, Kubenko played a lot of career in the top tier of his native land, as well as spells in Sweden and in the ECHL with the New Orleans Brass.
His best season to date was at Podhale in 2008-2009, when he scored 22 times in a points total of 42.
“He is big player with good hands uses his size well and has a good shot on him. I am sure he will do well for the Bison this coming season,” said a pleased Moria.
Next up on the forward line is the re-signing of last season’s EPL top goal scorer Lauko.
That news was well received by the Bison fans who last campaign voted him their Player of the Year.
He hammered home a career high 63 goals which left him top of the scoring charts by a clear 10 goals for the EPL.
The player nicknamed the fox in the box, three times hit four goals in a game and also netted another six hat-tricks.
His first trio came against Guildford in the second game of the season which was part of an eight game scoring streak, which Lauko opened the league campaign with.
His amount of league goals was the most ever by a Bison player and you have to go back 16 years to find the last Basingstoke player to beat the record and that was by Canadian Mario Belanger with 73 when the team were called the Beavers.
As well as his goal scoring exploits he also collected 48 assists for a points total of 111 – the third best in the EPL.
“I am really glad to be coming back to wear a Bison jersey as I enjoyed my time and the fans in Basingstoke last season. I was so proud to pick up the supporters award and I really appreciated it,” said Lauko from his home in Slovakia.
Another returning forward who found no trouble in finding the net last season is Bronnimann.

The Brit also enjoyed a career high year hitting the net 26 times, which was two better than his previous best in Guildford in 2006-2007.
Bronnimann was the only Brit to score a league hat-trick which came in the 12-0 demolition of Bracknell early in the season which was part of a six game goal scoring for the 23-year-old.
The Margate, UK born forward also collected 43 points, just one shy of his best in Guildford.
  “Ollie is a very skilful player and was probably our most natural goal scorer on the team last season after Ondrej. He is a great talent and I feel there is still more to come,” said Moria.
The British scorer was pleased to be back and he hoping he can fire the Bison higher up the standings.
“ I really enjoyed my first year in Basingstoke. Both on and off the ice we had a great team and if it was not for our mid season injury crisis I am sure we would have finished a lot higher, that is what we will be aiming to do this year.
He return and Lauko along with the resigning of Nicky Chinn means that forward line as it did early doors last season could be reunited.
“It was great playing with Lauko and Chinny (Nicky Chinn) last season and we really got off to a flying start. We have a good core of players back with a few additions and can’t see why we cannot improve,” said Bronnimann.
The British forward will always be remembered from last season as the scorer of the winning penalty shot in the Bison’s only victory over eventual league champions Milton Keynes.
The final forward to sign up for the Herd is Best and he is new to Basingstoke, but has spent the whole of his hockey life in the Home Counties.
Having played all his junior at Guildford the current Great Britain under-18 international who scored the game winning game in the World Championships against Lithuania last season had a split year between Slough and Bracknell.
His second half of the campaign was certainly better as he bagged six goals for the Bees included one against the Bison.  
“He is a player who is still learning and was did well last year for Bracknell. He is a good young talent and certainly one for the future,” said Moria.
The signing of Kubenko, Lauko and Bronnimann will complete what are paper look likely to be the first two lines of the team joining player-coach Moria, captain Nicky Chinn and new boy to the team Ciaran Long.
Best will be fighting for a spot on Basingstoke’s third line along with Chris Wiggins and two other forwards yet to be announced.
The Bison also have a import defenseman spot still open and a back-up goalie to recruit, but with three months before their first warm-up game recruitment is going well.
The Bison will hit the ice for the first time on Wednesday September 8 with their new look team as they face the visiting Bracknell Bees.
Three days later the Herd will then take on visiting Guildford, before travelling to the Spectrum the following day.
Their pre-season is completed with a return to the Hive on Thursday September 16.
Contact the author Graham.Merry@Prohockeynews.com