COVENTRY, UK – Basingstoke Captain Aaron Connolly admitted his side put in their best display of the season as they shut out the highly fancied Telford Tigers in the National Ice Hockey League Championship game at the Coventry Skydome.
The Bison had already lifted the Britton Conference league title and Play-Off title this season but faced a Telford side brimming with experience and big game players in front of a rowdy crowd in Coventry. An early powerplay effort from Kurt Reynolds and a smart finish from Connolly gave the Bison a first period two goal cushion and they never looked back, with further goals from Josh Smith and Ivan Antonov sealing a famous triple for the Hampshire side.
“We came into the game expecting it to be very tight” explained Connolly.
“They had a hard game yesterday against Peterborough and I think we just had more legs in the end. Once we got to 2-0 we felt we were on our way but the third goal was huge. We just kept working hard, then it was four and that was it.”
“It’s an amazing feeling and we set out to win every trophy we competed in this year. We didn’t manage to win the Autumn Cup and weirdly our elimination from the National Cup early on helped us in a way, but we will more than settle for a triple, it’s a thing of dreams.”
The Bison started the season slowly and no one watching the team in those early stages would have imagined they would go on to lift three trophies. Coach Doug Shepphard was named league Coach of the Year a fortnight ago in Pro Hockey News and Connolly believes the Canadian has played a key part in their success.
“Shep doesn’t hang around” admitted the Basingstoke skipper. “You look at his resume and the trophies he has won and it’s no surprise he knows what he is doing. He made a few changes when he needed to, and every week the team has just grown and grown and you can see that from our performances.”
“I personal think tonight was our best performance of the season and to do it in front of so many of our fans was special. I’d love to thank every single Bison fan for their support, as every week they’ve turned up to support us and made so much noise. Even tonight it looked like we had the most fans in the building and it’s great for the team”
The Coventry weekend has always been a fixture of the old English Premier League calendar and some eyebrows were raised when it was announced that the NIHL would continue to hold it as the season showpiece. Ticket sales were estimated at well over 1600 advance sales with walk ups on the day, making it at least financially viable in the future. Connolly is unsurprisingly a big fan of the format and believes its future will be bright, along with the NIHL.
“It’s like a festival really” he explained, in reference to the Final Four weekend. “It obviously wasn’t a sell-out but you can see the interest there, and as the old NIHL teams get stronger and their fans embrace it they will see it’s a great place to come and socialise with other hockey fans and enjoy themselves”
“A lot of people said the new league wouldn’t work but we saw as the season went on it was competitive and I can only see it growing year on year.”
Congratulations to the Basingstoke Bison from everyone at Pro Hockey News.
Contact the author: carrsy2@gmail.com
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