BASINGSTOKE, UK – The Bison enjoyed their first away clean sweep of a team in seven years when they recorded a 7-5 success over the Romford Raiders on Sunday night.
On their previous two visits the Herd had won 6-1 and 7-3 so Sunday’s win finished off the set.
Amazingly, that was back in season 2002/03, before Basingstoke joined the Elite League and as this season Steve Moria was the man in charge of the Herd.
The Bison’s final win in Romford in the regular season was by far their easiest as they led from start to finish.
That two previous games they had won the final period 5-0 to secure the victory.
Captain Nicky Chinn got the scoreboard rolling only for his opposite C wearer Danny Marshall to equalise.
For the second consecutive game at Rom Valley Way, Basingstoke’s British forward Chris Wiggins found the net and then Canadian Joe Ciccarello back in the line-up this weekend after three weeks away due to family commitments made it 3-1.
Marshall narrowed the lead to one, but Moria and Ciccarello on a double powerplay moved the score along again for the Bison.
New Romford signing on his home debut Darius Pliskauskas pulled one back, but it remained 5-3 to the second buzzer.
The final session saw Ondrej Lauko and Tom Long against his former side put the Herd out of sight, while Pliskauskas and Marshall with his hat-trick strike gave the Romford fans something to chase about at the end.
The previous night, the biggest ever crowd for an English Premier League game of 1,260 packed into the Basingstoke Arena to watch the Bison dominate the visiting Swindon Wildcats for two periods, before allowing them back into the contest.
Chinn again scored the opening goal and by the second break a Lauko brace and a Moria strike made the score 4-0.
At that point the Wildcats offence did not look like it had clue, but whatever coach Ryan Aldridge said to his men in the break worked wonders as with six minutes left they had clawed their way back to 4-3 thanks to Sam Bullas, Aaron Nell and Matt Foord.
At that point Moria called a time-out to refocus his side and from there they held out to the final buzzer.
“Four points was what we were looking for from the weekend, so I am very pleased we have achieved that. In The Swindon game we could have been 10-0 by the second break we played that well, but failed to carry it on for the 60 minutes.
“I have not given up finishing in the top four, we just have to keep on winning,” said Moria.
The Bison are currently fifth with six wins in their last seven games, but face a stiff test this Saturday, when local rivals Guildford are the visitors. They currently led the league series 4-1 and are yet to lose in Basingstoke this season.
On Sunday night, the Bison travel to Bracknell hoping to finally earn the bragging rights over their near neighbours. Currently the score in league meeting between these sides is 17-17-1 and since Basingstoke lost the first four league encounters a victory would mean that for the first time in the 21 year history the Hampshire outfit they would lead their Berkshire rivals.
Contact graham.merry@prohockeynews.com
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