Bison injury woes continue to haunt them

BASINGSTOKE UK- The Basingstoke Bison minor injury crisis certainly came back to haunt them on Halloween weekend, as the Herd suffered two defeats at the hands of Manchester 8-4 and away at Sheffield 5-3. The Bison were minus forward Scott Spearing and defensemen Kurt Reynolds and Tony Redmond. Assistant coach Redmond suffering a reaction to his leg injury in training the previous Tuesday to the games and so was once again forced to sit out. That meant the Herd had to re-shuffle their line-up with forward Tom Long moving back to the blue line to help out, while Joe Nicholls and Ryan Selwood were drafted in from Coventry’s English National League side to also man the defense. That left the team with just eight forwards, but early on against Manchester that did not seem to hinder them as they took a 2-1 lead thanks to goals from Ondrej Lauko and a Steve Moria thunderbolt. This after Greg Wood had opened the scoring after 38 seconds for the visitors. Hopes were high amongst the Bison faithful that it would be third time lucky against Manchester as Basingstoke had lost the previous two encounters. However, those dreams were soon dashed as the Phoenix were on fire early in the second period and defensive lapses cost the home side dear as Adam Walker netted twice and Tony Hand once   moved the visitors to a 4-2 advantage. The Bison reduced the lead to one thanks to a powerplay strike from Joe Ciccarello, but within a minute Andre Payette scored Manchester’s fifth and Ed Courtenay gave them a 6-3 lead by the second buzzer. With a lead to defend in the final 20 minutes, the Phoenix went to a 1-2-2 formation which was difficult to breakdown especially when Hand was on the ice. This enabled Manchester to add a seventh from Payette, before Nicky Chinn replied and it was left to Courtenay to score the final goal thanks to a deflection off Chinn. “I felt we played well in the first period, but we made too many defensive errors as a team from there on and that cost us dear. Of course we are missing three key players and I think that would affect any team. We just have to try and get results in what is a difficult time right now,” said Bison player/coach Moria. The following night, a disastrous 77 seconds in Sheffield, cost the Herd dear as Stephen Wallace, Matt Haywood and Arran Strawson all scored to give them a 3-0 lead at 6:42. At that point, Moria called a time-out and that stopped the scoring for over a period and the Bison managed to get back into the game as Andrew Hemmings grabbed a brace either side of a Nicky Chinn strike. However, having hauled themselves back level in the contest the Scimitars took just 49 seconds to restore their advantage from James Archer and then Wallace added the insurance goal in the final two minutes. That was the first time this season, the Herd have lost in relegation time on the road, but that was little consolation for their first pointless weekend. The Bison will now hope to end their recent losing streak when they host the Romford Raiders for the first time since 1998 on Saturday and. hope to repeat their 10-3 success, 11 years ago. The disappointing weekend was in far contrast to the Planet Ice Cup tie two days earlier on home ice as the Basingstoke crushed the Peterborough Phantoms 9-2. Brit Hemmings enjoyed a great night grabbing a hat-trick, while Jamie Line netted his brace his best tally so far in a Bison shirt. The other goal scorers were Lauko with a couple along with one each for Moria and Ciccarello. The Phantom goals came from Joe Miller and James Morgan. Two players were drafted into the line-up from Basingstoke’s Buffalo side who play in the English National League, they were livewire forward Neil Leary and 19-year-old defenseman Daniel Lackey making his Bison debut. Leary helped himself to a couple of assists on the night and he finished plus four for the evening. “I enjoyed playing tonight and I could have had three points, if Hemmings had not hit the post late on. It was a good game to play as it was so open, “ said Leary. Both Leary and Lackey did not look out of place in the line-up and the teenage defender finished plus one for the game. “I was nervous being my first game, but it was a great experience and I hope to play again in the future. I am not ready to jump up into the Bison at the moment, but it gives me something to aim at for the future,” said Basingstoke debut man Lackey.    Contact the author Graham.merry@prohockeynews.com