Bison skid hits three

BASINGSTOKE UK: The Bison have now slumped to a three-game losing streak, after winning their previous five games.

The Herd followed up last Sunday’s loss in Peterborough, with another road defeat at the Milton Keynes Lightning 2-1, before going down 4-2 on home ice to the current EPL leaders the Telford Tigers.

The Herd had been due to have just one game this weekend, but the sad withdrawal of the Manchester Phoenix saw the fixture list swapped around,  so Basingstoke found themselves heading to MK on a Friday night to replace the scheduled Manchester match.

A close contest saw the Lightning kill off a major penalty on James Griffin in the first period for checking to the head, before scoring twice in the second session from Lewis Hook and Milan Baranyk.

The Herd pulled a goal back from Cairan Long with three minutes to go, but were unable to send the game into overtime.

The following night in Basingstoke, the Herd were looking to tie the regular season series with the Tigers having won the previous two meetings.

Adding extra spice to the game, was the first return to Basingstoke of former Bison cage man Jon Baston, who last term set a new club record of six shut-outs in a season.

He no doubt had been hoping to blank the Bison, but only four minutes into the contest, he was beaten by former teammate Aaron Connolly.

After the first break, Long added a second and the Bison looked in control, but three minutes later Rick Plant with a high tip on a Sam Zajac shot reduced the lead to one.

The final period belonged to the Tigers as they became the first team this season to post 20 shots on the Bison at the Basingstoke Arena.

In fact in over 50 periods of hockey only three times before had the home side conceded more than 10 shots.

Making it even worst was the fact the Herd managed just three shots!

Captain Jason Silverthorn led by example in the final session as he first tied the game and then added two powerplay strikes to become the first player in two seasons to score a hat-trick against the Bison. The Tigers ended the night with a very impressive three out of three on the powerplay.

“We expected a tough weekend and this is what it has proved to be. We had nothing left by the final period against Telford. This was after I felt we were in control of the game,” said Bison head coach Doug Sheppard.

The Herd will now hope to return to winning ways this coming weekend, when they have a double header against the Hull Pirates, in a series which is currently a homer tied at 2-2.