BASINGSTOKE, UK – Bison player/coach Steve Moria’s 1+1 return in the 5-4 loss against the Sheffield Steeldogs on Saturday night saw the Canadian become only the fifth player in Basingstoke’s history to reach the landmark of 300 league points.
Only fellow Canadians Kevin Conway, Tim Salmon, Don Yewchin and Moria’s current team mate and assistant player/coach Scotsman Tony Redmond have scored more points.
That was the only plus to take from another night which saw the Bison suffer their third straight home loss following on from defeats against Manchester and Telford.
The Herd were hoping to build on a victory on the road in Manchester as they faced Sheffield on home ice in their last game before a 16 day break.
The Yorkshire outfit arrived in Hampshire minus their leading scorer Latvian Janis Ozolins leaving them with just two imports.
A hard hitting contest saw three fights in the opening nine minutes the first saw Bison enforcer Chris Wiggins clash with Sheffield’s Steve Duncombe on the boards. Wiggins won the fight, but suffered an injury while doing so and never saw another shift in the game.
The other two fights were toe-to-toe encounters as Sheffield’s Ashley Calvert out pointed Viktor Kubenko and then the Steeldogs Lloyd Gibson did likewise over Ollie Bronnimann.
The penalty count from the three early bouts made up the majority of the 80 minutes called in the first period which remain goalless.
The second period saw the Herd net two in two minutes from Steve Moria and Viktor Kubenko.
However, Stuart Brittle became the third Brittle brother in four games to score against the Bison after Adam scored for Milton Keynes and Luke for Telford.
The Steeldogs second powerplay of the night saw them equalise as man-of-the-match Brittle netted again.
The visitors then took a 3-2 lead in at the break after Calvert was first to react to a lose puck by the post.
The start of the final period saw Edgar Bebris promoted to Sheffield’s top line net their fourth and then Andrew Payette put his side well in control as he made it 5-2.
Powerplay number six of the night for the home side saw a Marcel Petran bullet give them a chance and then with 50 seconds left the Bison’s leading scorer Joe Miller netted to make it 5-4.
Soon after, the home side pulled their netminder but were unable to a force the game into overtime as they could not find a way past Ben Bowns who made 44 saves on the night
“Once again we have out shot a team and played well I thought, but have not come away with the win we wanted. It is not ideal having to wait 16 days to put it right, but I am sure we will come back strong from this,” said Bison player/coach Moria.
The Herd are next in action on Boxing Day with a home game against Peterborough followed by a road trip to Swindon and Basingstoke will be keen to start to get a winning run going.
“This season with the way the league is I don’t feel we are out of the title race. If we can have a really good second half to the season we will be in with a shout. Of course the first half has been disappointing as I feel we have played well in most games and out shooting our opponents, said Moria before quickly adding.
“I suspect we will get out shot in our next game and win.”
The team are certainly getting chances but as yet the Moria has not found his best three lines, but he has yet to play Czech native Daniel Volrab and Slovak Kubenko together and maybe that could hold the key.
For the Sheffield game Moria played centre for Kubenko and Nicky Chinn, leaving Volrab to centre a line with Miller and Bronnimann.
That left the all Brit line to be Wiggins, Jacob Heron and Craig Tribe as Liam Chong was away on international duty with Great Britain under-20s.
Volrab had been playing as a winger with Moria and Miller which the team currently still use as their number one powerplay unit.
“I think Volrab’s best position is at centre hence the change last week. I don’t think we are far away with the lines,” said Moria.
Contact the author Graham.Merry@Prohockeynews.com
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