BASINGSTOKE, UK: The Bison’s reign at the top of the English Premier League lasted just one week as they had a mixed weekend with a 3-2 shoot-out win over the Hull Pirates, before a 4-1 loss at local rivals Bracknell Bees.
The Herd were minus defenseman Declan Balmer and club captain Aaron Connolly and left them down to nine forwards for the trip to the Hive.
They soon found themselves in trouble as Bracknell imports Frankie Bakrik and Lukas Smital both struck.
The Herd got back into the game as Ciaran Long scored a really nice goal, but then failed to take advantage of a five-on-three powerplay unlike the week before and then Milan Kostourek made it 3-1 before the second buzzer.
The only goal of the final session saw British forward Matt Towalski complete the scoring.
The previous night, Ryan Watt continued his great start to the season as he scored the winning penalty shot as the Bison won the top against bottom clash with the Hull Pirates.
The Pirates having shipped 17 goals the previous weekend, switched player/coach Dominic Osman to defence and also gave a debut to new Finnish import Tommi Laine.
However, it was another Finn, netminder Jon Baston who was the star of the game as he made 48 saves in the game.
The Bison broke the deadlock at 21:39 as Joe Rand netted from close range.
Hull hit back and levelled things thanks to a sweet blue line strike from Jonathan Kirk made it 1-1.
The final session saw Hull then do the unthinkable as they took the lead from Craig Thurston.
The Bison forced the game into overtime as Joe Greener netted on the powerplay.
So Hull got a deserved point and the game went into overtime.
With no scoring in the extra five minutes, the game was decided by a shoot-out.
Hull went first and new boy Laine put the puck under Bison goalie Tomas Hiadlovsky, but his shot went just wide, before Rand netted for an early lead for the home side.
Thurston levelled things up and then Tomas Karpov missed his shot to leave it 1-1 after two shooters.
Mario Mjellini scored to put the pressure on Long, who needed to score to keep his side in the contest and take the shoot-out to sudden death.
Long scored and then both Dominic Osman and Greener failing to hit the target.
The tension grew and three more players Tait, Shaun Thompson and Kirk all failed to beat the netminders.
It was left to the 12th shooter Bison British forward Watt to make sure of the win with a lovely back hand finish.
“I felt we did not put in the effort against Hull, but we found a way to win. We played better in Bracknell, but we did not get the result we were looking for,” said Bison head coach Doug Sheppard.
This weekend, the Bison will hope to continue their unbeaten run at home when they face reigning league champions the Telford Tigers.
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