BASINGSTOKE, UK- The Basingstoke Bison now have one of the longest club records well and truly in their sights as they enter the Christmas period. Having extended their winning streak to 11 games with victories over local rivals the Bracknell Bees and Slough Jets a fortnight ago.
They are now only four games away from equalling the club record of 15 straight victories set back in the days of the now defunct Heineken Division One. In that campaign of 1992/93, Basingstoke were crowned champions and ironically like the EPL that was also a league with an import limit of four.
The super quartet in those days were all Canadian in defenseman Russ Parent and forwards Kevin Conway, Mario Belanger and Rick Fera. It remains to be seen if the current foreign legion of Steve Moria, Viktor Kubenko, Ondrej Lauko and Mindy Kieras can write themselves into the record books. One player currently still in the Bison line-up Tony Redmond is the common link between both teams and the Scot is now closing on 450 league appearances for the club. Standing between the Herd and equalling that record are a home game with Peterborough on Boxing Day and then a trip to Swindon the following day.
Then it is a home game with Bracknell on New Year’s Day, followed by road game in Peterborough. So far this season the Bison have a 100 per cent record against all three of these teams, but in the EPL no game is a given win and the Herd will have to earn every victory. At the moment Basingstoke player/coach Steve Moria is taking one game at a time with the focus first firmly on the Boxing Day showdown with Peterborough. They are coached by former Bison fans’ favourite Curtis Cruickshank.
The netminder recorded a club record seven shut-outs in a Bison uniform and also blanked the Herd during a spell with Nottingham. He would love to get one over on his former team and three of the last four meetings have only been decided by a single goal, so there is not a lot to choose between the teams. Basingstoke hope to welcome Ricky Skene back to their line-up from injury, but still out of the line-up will be Chris Wiggins (groin) and Ciaran Long (shoulder). Long picking his injury up while on Great Britain under-20 duty in Belarus.
That leaves the Herd with eight forwards and Bison player/coach Steve Moria is hoping to draft in a forward from ENL to enable him to roll with three forward lines. “We have beaten Peterborough four times, but we have had some close games with them and if we do not focus on what we have to do then we can always get beat,” said Moria. “We are on a great run and want to continue it and keep the pressure up on the leaders as no one expected us to be in third at his stage of the season.” After the Peterborough game, the Bison have the short journey west to Wiltshire to face Swindon. These sides met on a double header weekend earlier in the season with Basingstoke winning both games. However, last season the Herd did lose in Swindon and they are coached former Bison player/coach Ryan Aldridge which also adds some spice to the encounter. Aldridge has a side which are notorious for running hot and cold, but on their day they are match anyone and could well have a new import Jonas Hoog making his debut, which will add another dimension to the game.
“I think they are stronger than when we last played them. It looks an easy game on paper because of results earlier in the season, but it will be a battle,” said Moria. Contact the author Graham.Merry@Prohockeynews.com
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