BASINGSTOKE, UK: The Bison face the last team to beat them on home ice when they face the Manchester Phoenix on Saturday night at their Basingstoke Arena.
The Herd were beaten by the Phoenix in the play-offs back in March, after they had beaten Manchester on all three of their regular visits to Basingstoke in a series which was a complete homer.
Since their loss with the Phoenix, the Bison have won at home to Milton Keynes and Guildford in warm-up games, before opening their campaign with an overtime victory over Guildford.
This was thanks to a winner from Basingstoke-born defenseman Kurt Reynolds – the team’s longest serving player.
The sudden death period saw the teams play three-on-three for the first time. Only one import is allowed on the ice and with the Herd’s goalie being an import, it meant their other three imports Tomas Karpov, Joe Rand and Miroslav Vantroba were left watching from the bench.
However, the Bison Brits did the job as Reynolds tapped in at the fat post from Ryan Watt.
Earlier in the contest, summer signing Shaun Thompson opened his account with an excellent strike only for Jens Eriksson to level things by the first period break.
A great team goal involving Karpov and Vantroba saw Watt tip home for his first league goal for the club – as he failed to score in the whole of last season.
Guildford’s Kevin Phillips tied things with five minutes left, but then Reynolds scored the winner in overtime.
The following night, the Bison lost their first road trip of their EPL campaign as they went down 5-2 at the Peterborough Phantoms.
The home side were soon two goals from Craig Scott and Ales Padelek.
The Herd hit back in the second session as former Phantom Declan Balmer and Karpov tied the game.
Edgars Bebris gave Peterborough the lead again, only for Rand to level things once more.
Unfortunately, this was as good as it got for the visitors as James Ferrara and Darius Pliskauskas made sure of the win.
“I was really pleased with the way we played against Guildford, but in Peterborough we made too many mistakes. But is early in the season and I sure we will learn from this.
“We are now focussed on the Manchester game, which we know is going to be a tough one,” said Bison head coach Doug Sheppard.
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