BASINGSTOKE UK: The Bison completed their first sweep of the season. as they defeated the Bracknell Bees 5-0.
It was the first time in six years the Herd had managed to win all six regular games over their oldest rivals and maintained a very impressive home record, which has seen the Bees win only once in their last 21 visits to Basingstoke and that was after a penalty 
shoot-out.
The game on paper looked more evenly balanced with Joe Miller, Joe Rand, Aaron Connolly, Dan Davies and Declan Balmer all scratched from the Bison line-up. This gave the Herd the opportunity to give debuts to under-20 players Kyle Goddard and Paul Petts and both saw some good ice time during the game.
It was former Bracknell star Ivan Antonov who broke the deadlock in the ninth minute, as he tipped Tomas Karpov’s blue line shot. Antonov then earned his side a penalty shot, when he was hauled down by Harvey Stead. The young forward made no mistake with shot and became the first Bison player this season to score a penalty shot.
It was Matt Towalski who completed a 3-0 first period, which was no more than the home side deserved.
The second session proved to be a non event with Bracknell having some nice spells of pressure, but unable to beat Tomas Hiadlovsky.
The final period saw goals from Rene Jarolin and Grant Rounding which made sure of the win.
James Galazzi came closest for Bracknell to breaking Hiadlovsky’s shut out, when his shot hit the post two minutes from time.
However, the Bison cageman ended the night turning away all 23 shots he faced, for what was his third shut-out of the season and his fifth in two years for the Herd.
“We rested a few tonight, which I hope will help us going forward. I felt it was a good win and keeps our run going. It was nice to be able to slot the junior players in and hopefully we can do it again later in the season,” said Bison head coach Doug Sheppard.
The victory was the fifth on the bounce for the Bison and next up is a tough looking weekend.
They are at home to fifth placed Hull and then have a road trip to Peterborough, who are a point ahead of the Herd in the EPL standings.
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