BASINGSTOKE, UK- The Bison enjoyed a weekend of yo-yoing up and down the standings of the English Premier League.
Having gone into the latest set of matches in fourth spot, victory on Saturday night at Slough and defeat by Guildford saw the Herd move up to third. However, a 3-1 defeat to the visiting Milton Keynes Lightning 24 hours later, along with a win for Manchester and an overtime loss by Guildford, saw the Bison slip to fifth.
The toughest weekend of the season on paper had started so well for the Herd with a win at the Hangar 4-1. Mindy Kieras scored the only goal of the first period, before Ondrej Lauko and Tony Redmond moved the score to three zip.
With the title slipping away from second placed Slough their leading scorer Blaz Emersic gave them a lifeline, but with four minutes left Tom Long ended the game as a contest with Basingstoke’s fourth. So defeat on home ice for the Bison only a week earlier by the Jets was avenged, and that had proved the catalyst for the Herd’s second win of the season at their local rivals.
“I think everyone was disappointed with the way we played last week and that helped us this week. We had a strong game and dominated all three zones. They had a little bit of pressure after they scored, but the fourth goal killed them off,” said Bison player-coach Steve Moria.
The Basingstoke boss reshuffled his line for the match with Tom Long joining up with Moria and the league’ leading scorer Lauko. This line is normally used by the Bison on the powerplay, but on this occasion was deployed to stop the Emersic line which caused so many problems last time in Slough.
With Lauko and Long both scoring and Emersic managing just one. It was a job well done. On Sunday night, the Herd stuck with those lines as they try to once again beat the Milton Keynes Lightning on home ice.
Having played out a goal less first period, it took the Bison only eight seconds to open the scoring as Shaun Thompson won the centre ice draw and Ollie Bronnimann provided the finish.
The league leaders did not panic at this point and thanks to a shorthanded strike from Michael Wales levelled the game. The match then turned ugly in the 36th minutes as Matt Towalski checked Jamie Line head first into the boards. It looked bad and it was no surprise when Chris Wiggins came flying in to stick up for his team mate and then MK’s Grant McPherson did likewise forcing all the players to pile into the boards. The outcome saw Towalski lucky to escape with a 2+10 for checking from behind and McPherson got a 5+game for roughing. Wiggins for his troubles received 5+game for roughing as well as a match for roughing. So that saw the teams play two minutes of four-on-four, before MK went on a three minute powerplay.
Just as that was about to expire and by now into the final period, the Lightning scored what turned out to be the game winner from Andre Smulter. They then added a third seven minutes later from Adam Carr to complete the victory.
“It was disappointing as we played so well last night I really felt we had a chance tonight, but it never really happened for us. They have out worked us, that is what they do and is why they are top of the league,” said assistant-captain Long.
This weekend, the Herd face a double header encounter with the Peterborough Phantoms and anything but maximum points is sure to see their third place dreams vanish. They have beaten the reigning grand slam champions three out of four times and on both occasions on home ice where the first game of the weekend’s mini series is played.
That match will see British forward Tony Redmond become the first player in Basingstoke’s history to chalk up 400 league appearances, so the Herd will be keen to win for the popular Scotsman. However, missing from their line-up this weekend will be the suspended forward Wiggins along with injured Joe Ciccarello so leaving the Herd with only have eight forwards, unless they can draft a player in for the weekend.
Both games are bound to be tough as the Phantoms look to gear themselves up for the play-off and if the Herd could finish third this would be the match-up on Easter weekend, but currently a clash with Guildford looks more likely.
Contact the author Graham.Merry@Prohockeynews.com
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