BASINGSTOKE, UK – Having missed out in the final of the EPL Cup last week to Slough, the Herd will hope for better luck in the play-offs. They start this weekend with a juicy looking quarter-final clash with the Milton Keynes Lightning. Basingstoke are on their travels for the first game on Saturday, before hosting the home leg the night after. There is nothing to choose between the sides this season as the league series was drawn with four of the six games being decided by a single goal. That was the case last Saturday, when the sides met for the final league encounter in Basingstoke. MK raced into a two goal lead thanks to powerplay strikes from defencemen Leigh Jamieson and Michael Farn. The Herd got themselves back into the contest thanks to a super shorthanded strike from Viktor Kubenko. The Slovak then turned the game on its head with two goals in the space of 25 seconds in the first minute of the final period to give his side a one goal lead.
British forward Ciaran Long continued his recent fine form in front of goal with the Bison’s fourth. MK set up a tense finish as Monir Kalgoum scored with 51 seconds left, but that was as close as it got. “I felt we played really well in the last 30 minutes in all department. For us winning at home was important as we have not done that for a while and we needed to ahead of the play-offs,” said Bison player/coach Steve Moria. For a game which was a dead rubber, it turned into a very feisty affair which saw Grant McPherson tossed out of the game for third man in. So if that is anything to go by, this weekend is going to be a battle royal and the reward for victors is a place in the last four in Coventry and a game against either Manchester or Sheffield. On Sunday night, the Herd completed their regulation season on a winning note with a 4-1 victory in Yorkshire over the Sheffield Steeldogs. Ondrej Lauko scored the first two goals to take his league total for the club to 99 over two seasons. Long then added a third before the first break and then Callum Best netted his third goal of the season to make it 4-0. Lloyd Gibson ended Dean Skinns hopes of a first shut-out of the season five minutes from time. A four point weekend was just what the doctor ordered to get the confidence back in the camp after the disappointment of missing out on the EPL Cup the previous Wednesday with the Bison going down 4-2 at the Hangar to the Slough Jets and so losing 7-4 on aggregate. The game started brightly for the Bison, but it was the home side who scored first from Michael Bowman. The Bison equalised through Ben Davies, only for Darius Pliskauskas to make it 2-1 on the night 5-3 on aggregate. The Herd hit back as Sam Oakford scored from close range and the score remained 2-2 for the next 20 minutes. As the tension grew Slough edged further ahead thanks to Joe Greener and when former Bison player/coach Doug Sheppard scored on Slough’s sixth powerplay of the night, the contest was over. “The team that scored the third goal tonight I felt was always going to win. Overall I felt we were the better team, but we just did not convert our chances that proved to be the difference,” said Moria. Contact the author Graham.Merry@Prohockeynews.com
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