BASINGSTOKE, UK – The Bison stampede is now starting to rumble as the Herd reeled off their second four point weekend on the trot to take their current winning streak to six.
Their opening game of the weekend saw them down the EPL leaders at the time Slough Jets with an excellent 7-3 road win.
Bison captain Nicky Chinn rolled back the years as the top British points scorer in the Herd’s EPL history grabbed his first hat-trick for the team.
The contest was even after 20 minutes after Joe Miller and Viktor Kubenko had twice given the Herd the lead only for it to be cancelled out by Mindy Kieras and Tom Carlon.
The game was won with three goals in a three minutes spell in the middle session as Chinn scored twice either side of a Daniel Volrab strike.
The final period saw the Herd take their tally seven thanks to Ollie Bronnimann and Chinn’s hat-trick strike, before Jets star man Adam Calder netted a late consolation.
“It was great to score a hat-trick and it felt good out there tonight. The team is really coming together now after we struggled early on in the year,” said hat-trick man Chinn
The following night in Basingstoke, the Wildcats came out the stronger, but were shocked as the Herd scored twice in the space of a minute.
Volrab with a superb back hand finish and Kubenko, put the visitors firmly on the back foot.
They were just about sunk as Moria and Liam Chong with a great breakaway made it 4-0 and Swindon called a time-out.
The Wildcats re-shuffled their lines as Jaroslav Cesky and Michal Pinc were split up and they certainly came back into the game.
However, it was two former players of the Basingstoke’s junior programme Joe Baird and Nicky Watt that combined for their opening goal with Watt deflecting in Baird’s blue line blast.
Any hopes of comeback were ended in the opening minute of the final period as Sam Oakford scored with a top corner strike.
Volrab then took the score to 6-1, before Jonas Hoog netted Swindon’s second, before Volrab completed his first hat-trick for the team.
“Everything fell into place this weekend. We have three lines all looking sharp and that is good to see.
“Nicky (Chinn) played like a real power forward in Slough and led the team to victory. Daniel (Volrab) scored a superb hat-trick to cap a great five point game for him,” said Bison player/coach Steve Moria.
This weekend, the Bison face a visit from a Manchester Phoenix who lead the series of the Herd 2-1-0 and won when last in Hampshire 5-2.
On that night they chogged up the neutral zone and then took their chances from turn overs.
Since then the Bison have won six straight including their first shut-out of the season 3-0 by Matt Colclough, who has since made the starting netminding spot his own.
Manchester are hoping import defenseman Jaroslav Spelda will be back in their line-up and player/coach and assist king for the team Tony Hand is also hoping to back having to sit out last weekend.
Then the following day the Bison head to the Hive to face a Bracknell side who have a 2-4-0 record from their last six home games all being decided by a single goal.
Before that sequence they hammered the Herd 7-3 and the Bison will be looking to put the record straight when they make the short trip to Berkshire.
“After the disappointment of our opening 10 games which saw us down in seventh place. We are now getting the wins, climbing the table and want to continue that,” said Moria
Contact the author Graham.Merry@Prohockeynews.com
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