BASINGSTOKE UK: The Bison seeded number one in the South One play-offs eased into the last four with a 13-1 aggregate win over the Invicta Dynamos.
The Kent side were unable to upset the form book and it was no surprise they lost both games, having gone down 10-1 in their Herd’s final regular season game.
A week later, they returned and found Bison side still suffering from a hang over from
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the Autumn Cup loss the previous night.
However, a superb second session saw them score four unanswered goals as Aaron Connolly, a Tomas Karpov brace and Kurt Reynolds all netted.
The Bison then added two more in the final period as Roman Malinik and birthday boy Ryan Sutton scored.
Dean Skinns recorded his sixth shut-out of the season turning away nine shots, while he opposite number Damian King made 42 shots.
The tie as a contest was ended by the first period break in Gillingham as another Karpov brace and the first of Grant Rounding hat-trick took the aggreagate socre to 9-0.
Two more from Rounding and further goals from Malinik and Dan Scott took match score to 7-0, before Steve Osman netted Invicta’s only goal of the weekend as he beat Dan Weller-Evans, who replaced Skinns at the first break.
The victory sets up a semi-final clash with the London Raiders, a side who narrowly lost 2-1 to the Herd on their last meeting.
It will be the biggest game to date in the new Romford rink and Basingstoke have lost in the play-offs in Romford’s old rink, but it was way back in 1990.
The Bison will hope history does not repeat.
“We know have a tough weekend coming up against London. They are a side we will have to out work if we want to win. Winning will see us make the play-off finals and Coventry for the national finals,” said Doug Sheppard.
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