Bison still hope for top four finish

BASINGSTOKE, UK – The Bison are still stalking the teams above them as the season enters it final two months and have not given up hope of snatching a top four finish. That cause was given a great boost on Sunday night, as the fifth placed Herd beat fourth team Manchester Phoenix 4-2.
That reduced the gap between the sides to just three points with 11 games to play, but as the Bison lost the series to their Lancashire rivals 4-2, they would need four points to make the move into the top four. With the Phoenix now on a losing streak and the Herd on a winning run, the tables could well be turned by the season end.
The Bison travelled with high hopes and took the opener 2-0 thanks Steve Moria and Ondrej Lauko’s second shorthanded goal of the weekend. The Slovak had not been playing on the PK, as Joe Ciccarello had been Moria’s partner when shorthanded. However, with Canadian Ciccarello currently sidelined with a knee injury, Lauko has stepped in and just loves the wide open ice of the PK.

The Bison’s two goal lead then vanished eight minutes into the second period as Ed Courtenay netted twice. However the Herd, thanks to Moria with his second powerplay goal of the night, edged the contest going into the third.
It was left to Shaun Thompson, who netted a goal in both games at the weekend to net the insurance goal for a 4-2 win. It was the Bison’s second consecutive four point weekend and once again Tom Annetts guarded the pipes making 48 saves over the two games as he gave up just three goals.
“This was a good win and a good performance, which keeps us in the hunt for fourth spot,” said Moria.
The previous night was a special one for the Bison as they used the game  to support Value for Valour programme, with proceeds from the evening going to the ABF – The Soldiers’ Charity.
As a tribute to the troops the Herd wore specially designed camouflaged jerseys as they took on their oldest local rivals Bracknell Bees in a home derby game. These sides have clashed ever since Basingstoke’s first season in 1988/89, but for the first time in the club’s history, next month the Bison will head to Bracknell looking to complete their first ever series sweep against the Bees at the Hive.
This was after a comfortable 6-1 victory over Bracknell had no answer to the Bison’s offensive weapons. Bracknell netminder Adam Marashi saw plenty of rubber making 52 saves on the night. The pick of which was hat-trick of stops one after the other to deny Moria, Lauko and Mindy Kieras. The Bison opened the scoring with their first shot of the game timed at 65 seconds as hot shot Lauko scored with a trademark wrist shot.
Basingstoke man-of-the-match Nicky Chinn scored the next goal and then did all the spade work including drawing cageman Marashi to allow Thompson to score his first goal since returning to the club. That was his seventh game back in the Herd line-up since moving from the Hull Stingrays. Basingstoke’s Sam Oakford nearly scored his first goal of the campaign as the Herd had five ex-Bracknell players on the ice at the time, but he failed to jam the puck home by the post.
The visitors kept themselves in the contest thanks to a Michal Pinc powerplay strike, but the loss of leading scorer Jaroslav Cesky early in the second stung the Bees badly. With no real sting in their attack, the Bison continued to control the game and Chris Wiggins grabbed a Bison fourth as he stole in from the boards to score. The same player looked to have scored a fifth in the final period, but it was washed out as the net was off its moorings. It was left to Tony Redmond to add a fifth as the puck bounced fiercely off the ice and flew past the glove hand of a helpless Marashi. It was left to Slovak Lauko to complete the scoring with the first of his two shorthanded strikes of the weekend.
“We needed to get off to a good start and did that in the first period. I felt we fall off our game in the second period and then dominated in the third for what was a good win,” said Moria.
The Herd have a great chance to make it 11 home wins on the trot when bottom side Romford Raiders are in town on Saturday. The Herd are currently on their best run of victories in the Basingstoke Arena since the season of 1998/99 when they won 12 straight. The club record stands at 19 currently where 16 of those games were in Championship winning season of 1992/93.
On Sunday, the Herd travel to Sheffield looking for their first win at Ice Sheffield after two awful performances on their previous two visits.
“We have not played well there this season and we have to put that right on Sunday,” said Moria.
Contact the author Graham.Merry@Prohockeynews.com