Herd’s numbers added to

BASINGSTOKE UK – The Basingstoke Bison have reacted to their current injury crisis by signing British defenseman Tyrone Miller. The 27-year-old went straight into the Herd line-up against one of his former clubs the Guildford Flames on Sunday night. The former Great Britain junior international last season played in Romford where he where he topped the scoring charts for the Raiders defence with 18 points all coming in helpers. He also picked up 75 minutes in penalties and is not afraid to dish out the hits as he proved against Guildford’s Jez Lundin. Miller’s debut at one of his former stamping grounds, did not go to plan as Guildford won 3-2, in another exciting game between these local rivals. A Lukas Smital opener and a Nathan Rempel brace saw the Surrey side home. Bison player/coach Steve Moria replied with a couple his second made it 3-2 with just three minutes to play. The Bison were unable to break down the Flames resistance again and the game rounded out at 3-2. However, over the coming weeks the new signing is sure to be a great asset to the team and will certainly help out a shorthanded Bison with current defenseman Tony Redmond and Kurt Reynolds likely to be out for at least another couple of weekends. He will bring the defensive unit up back up to four. Tom Long had been helping out o the blue line, but missed last weekend due to illness, while Scott Spearing has starting skating as he looks to return to the line-up “Tyrone contributed more than I expected for someone who has not skated this season. He is welcome addition and boost to team, which can only help us through this difficult period with injuries,” said Bison boss Moria. On Saturday night for their game against the visiting Romford Raiders, Basingstoke drafted in   two players for their Bison English Premier League debuts. They were Basingstoke Buffalo defenseman Daniel Lackey and forward   Joe Edwards of the Oxford City Stars, who picked up an assist. Both played their part in a super victory which saw the home side romp to a 3-0 lead inside seven minutes thanks to Moria, leading scorer Ondrej Lauko and Chris Wiggins. Debut boy Edwards then set-up Andy Hemmings for the Bison’s fourth, before Mikko Silvennoinen scored a great breakaway goal which pinged the crossbar on its way into the net with 38.4 seconds left in the period to end the period 3-1. Bison defenseman Mindy Kieras had a very productive night with six assists and he started the move for the Herd’s fifth of the night finished off by Jamie Line. Basingstoke man-of-the-match Line then grabbed the next goal as well, with a clinical shorthanded strike and then Joe Ciccarello made it 7-1. The Raiders, who celebrated their first win of the season the following night, then rallied a little as Joe Allen and Matt Turner both scored and they also scored the first goal after the interval, with sweet low shot from Jon Sitko to reduce the lead to three goals. However, the Bison then scored two shorthanded strikes on the same powerplay thanks to Nicky Chinn and Ciccarello. The game was over as a contest as Moria scored his second of the night and it was left to Lauko to wrap his hat-trick and the match scoring for a 12-4 victory. “After our recent losses, this was important win for us. We made a good start and we were still playing hard in the last period which was good to see. I felt Dan and Joe have done a good job for us tonight and have not looked out of place” said Moria This weekend, the Bison are on the road on Saturday as they travel to Link Centre hoping to make it two wins out of two against the Swindon Wildcats, before entertaining the Slough Jets in one of the biggest games of the season. This game doubles up as a league and premier cup match. With the standing in that competition as tight as they could be, neither side can really afford to lose on Sunday if they want to stay in contention for a semi-final place.  Contact the author graham.merry@prohockeynews.com