BASINGSTOKE, UK- Club records went tumbling like the temperatures in England as the Basingstoke Bison recorded their ninth straight win which was a new EPL record for the Hampshire outfit last Sunday.
They did it with another comprehensive win in Telford having won in Shropshire 6-0 earlier in the season.
This time around they raced away to a 6-1 advantage in a 6-3 success, thanks to two goals from current scoring machine Viktor Kubenko and singles for Ondrej Lauko, Ciaran Long, Nicky Chinn and Sam Oakford, with his first league goal of the season.
The victory also saw a couple of assists for young British forward Callum Best which were his first ever points in a Bison jersey.
The game in Telford, saw the visitors score first before Tom Watkins levelled. They then raced away to a 4-1 advantage by the end of the second buzzer.
That became 6-1, before two goals in the final two minutes from Daniel Mackriel and Ashley Calvert completed the scoring.
The previous night as home to the Sheffield Steeldogs an awesome offensive display saw the Herd run out easy 8-1 winners and in the process book their place in the final four of the EPL Cup.
However, it was Sheffield, who had to battle against the snow to get to Basingstoke, who scored first from Latvian Kriss Grundmanis.
The Bison equalised through a great individual strike from Andy Hemmings and the Herd through they had taken the lead by the first break, but Mindy Kieras’ powerplay goal was disallowed due to Tony Redmond being in the crease
After the break, the home side dominated as Ondrej Lauko, Ollie Bronnimann and Kubenko took the score to 4-1.
The final session saw even more goals as Chinn scored, before a Kubenko brace completed his fourth hat-trick of the season.
It was left to Lauko to wrap up the scoring and in the process he reached a 150 league points for the club making him only the 15th player to reach that figure.
Another 50 points for the season which is very possible for the Slovak will see him join just 12 other players with 200 or more points two of which are current team mates Steve Moria and Redmond.
Another four point weekend for the Bison was just what they were looking for and with shock defeat of Slough in Sheffield, Basingstoke moved up to third in the EPL standings.
However, the win in Telford came at a price as British power forward Chris Wiggins and defenceman Ricky Skene both picked up groin injuries which looks set to rule the British pair out of this weekend’s action.
On top of that, Ciaran Long flies out to Belarus with Great Britain under-20 on Sunday to further reduce the Herd.
This weekend, the Bison face local rivals Bracknell Bees at home looking to extend their winning streak further and then on Sunday the Herd face a tough road trip to Slough, who they leap frogged over in the league standings last Sunday.
“Last weekend, we completed our first objective of the season which was to make the cup semi-final so that was very pleasing. We then had another good win in Telford in a game in which I felt Callum Best was one of our best forwards which was nice to see, “ said Moria.
With a reduced bench this weekend, teenage Best will certainly play his part and the ex-Bee would love to score against his former team mates.
“We are few players down for this weekend, but I am sure the guys left will step it up and I still feel we can get results in both games,” said Moria.
Contact the author Graham.Merry@Prohockeynews.com
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