BASINGSTOKE, UK – What a great week it proved to be for the Basingstoke Bison as they made their first final in three years after beating the Manchester Phoenix 8-7 on aggregate in the EPL Cup last Thursday.
Back in 2008 the Herd made the final of the Challenge Cup in the Elite League and nearly took home the silverware, only a 4-0 final period blitz from the league champions Coventry Blaze stopped them. The Bison will hope to go one better this time around and emulate their Benson and Hedges Plate wins of 1999 and 2000.
One player still remains form that team in Tony Redmond and he returned from injury last Thursday to play his part in a superb victory over EPL champions elect Manchester Phoenix. On the night a red-hot Bison scorched the Phoenix winning 6-4 to claim an 8-7 aggregate win.
“This is huge for the town of Basingstoke as well as the players and fans. We had a game plan to play pucks in behind their D men and get them turning and we did that really well in Manchester.
“We played out best first period of the season and could have been more up than four and by the end of the game we had about 25 good chances to score,” said Bison player/coach Steve Moria.
The Bison will now meet either the Guildford Flames or Slough Jets in the final for what will be a right royal derby. Currently Slough lead 8-4 from the first-leg and you expect them to complete the job in Surrey on March 2.
Despite not knowing their opponents the Bison have already started selling tickets for the first leg of the final which will take place at the Basingstoke Arena on March 9. That is sure to be another great night in the club’s history as was last Thursday in Manchester.
The Bison trailing by one goal going into the second-leg soon wiped that out as Viktor Kubenko and Callum Best both scored in the opening five minutes to put the Herd in front in the tie for the first time. Manchester hit back from Curtis Huppe only for Ondrej Lauko to make it 3-1.
Stephen Wallace then levelled tie on aggregate again, but that was as close as Phoenix were to get all night. In a high scoring opening period, another Mindy Kieras blue line special adding to his two in the first leg made it 4-2 at the first buzzer giving Basingstoke a 6-5 lead.
After the break, the visitors extended their lead further from Ollie Bronnimann, only for Joe Miller to keep his side in touch. The Bison then regained their three goal advantage thanks to Lauko’s which they retained to the second buzzer.
A tense final period saw the visitors ran into penalty trouble in the final five minutes as Lauko was joined in the penalty box by Kieras. For the second game running Manchester made the most of 5-on-3 as Tony Hand scored with three minutes left to leave the Bison leading overall by just one.
The home side threw everything at Dean Skinns, but he stood firm in the Basingstoke net as victory was assured. Twice on Tuesday night in the first leg in Basingstoke the Herd came back to equalise thanks to blue line bullets from Kieras, only for Tony Hand to grab a late winner to add to earlier strikes from Marcus Kristoffersson and Curtis Huppe.
The second period also saw referee Dave Cloutman take a nasty tumble hitting his head on the ice after tripping over a Manchester stick. However, he was okay to officiate the second leg of the semi-final and Bison’s Saturday league clash with Sheffield.
“On Tuesday night, I felt we did not play as well as we could. We were never able to get our game plan going, but trailing by just one goal always gave us a chance,” said Moria.
The Bison continued their busy schedule of four games in six days with a double header league weekend which saw them beat the Sheffield Steeldogs 3-1 and then lose after a penalty shoot-out 4-3 to the Milton Keynes Lightning.
Saturday’s game was a feisty affair as the Bison scored three goals and won three fights. The Herd got off to a great start as Kubenko and Nicky Chinn scored in the space of 18 seconds to put them two up inside four minutes.
The visitors pulled a goal back from Chris Sykes and then a great play from man-of-the-match Best set-up Kieras to skate in and around Ben Bowns for the defenseman’s fourth goal in three games. After that a few battles off the puck boiled over as Chinn clashed with Kriss Grundmanis followed by Chris Wiggins and Ryan Johnson and then to finish with Best and Chris Morris.
It added to the entertainment value of the game in which the Bison dominated with Bowns making 48 saves on his way to his fourth man-of-the-match in five visits to Basingstoke. “We played a good game tonight and Callum Best again had an excellent game which he has been doing for us in the past few weeks,” said Moria.
Sunday night and in their second home game of the weekend, the Bison found it hard to contain a hard fore checking Milton Keynes Lightning in the opening period. The Bucks side had plenty of chances with Dean Skinns produced a string of good saves and just when it looked like the session would end 0-0, MK’s player/coach Nic Poole opened the scoring.
The second session Gary Clarke doubled the lead as the home side came more into the game no doubt feeling the effects of the previous three games. They then go the spark they needed as the never say die attitude of man-of-the-match Ben Davies saw him open the scoring and then a Lewis Christie give-up in the slot was gratefully received by Lauko to rifle home.
However, the celebration of getting back to level terms were short-lived as eight seconds later Adam Carr put MK in front again. The Bison at this point could have given up but they battled back with a great give and go pass from Bronnimann allowing Kubenko to score.
The Herd then had a late powerplay, but failed to convert it. Milton Keynes did likewise with the man advantage in overtime as Skinns made four big saves. That left the game to be decided on penalty shots with Carr the only man to find the net in the five taken.
The Bison’s trio of Lauko, Moria and Kubenko saw their efforts saved by Barry Hollyhead and Emersic was denied by Skinns. The two points for MK keeps them in touch of the sides in fourth and third, while for the third placed Bison it leaves them a point ahead of Slough and the two teams meet on Saturday in Basingstoke.
That is sure to be one hell of a game and can the Herd clip the wings of the Jets as they did last time on home ice. On Sunday, the Herd have another local debry when they travel to Bracknell keen not to repeat their worst defeat of the season when they lost in Hive back in January 10-3.
Contact the author Graham.Merry@Prohockeynews.com
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