BASINGSTOKE, UK – New yellow laces certainly proved a lucky charm for Herd’s British forward Ollie Bronnimann as he bagged five goals on the opening weekend of the EPL for the Bison.
The Margate-born forward scored twice in Basingstoke’s 4-3 reverse at home to Manchester, before netting a trio in his side’s 6-0 road victory in Telford the following night.
His first strike of the weekend also brought a milestone for the 23-year-old as it was his 100th goal in EPL from spells with Guildford and Basingstoke.
“It is really nice to reach that figure and It is great to start scoring right off the bat. I just saw the yellow laces in the shop and thought ‘I could use them’ but after scoring two on my first night I will have to keep them for luck” said Bronnimann.
The opening night of the EPL season in Basingstoke proved an eventful one as for the third year running Manchester took the honours in the first home fixture.
However, the 4-3 result tells little of the story as the not for the first time in north Hampshire a game ended with all the talk about the performance of referee Joy Tottman.
Since their return to the EPL, this official has certainly not endeared herself to the Bison faithful and that proved the case again as Manchester were given no less than 10 powerplays on the night.
They scored on three of the them to that proved the different between the sides as Bison returned a tally of one from four from their extra man advantage.
The Phoenix opened the scoring from new Slovak import who look useful especially with his shooting and from the blue line made it 1-0 on the powerplay. The Bison levelled thanks to Bronnimann as he drilled the puck through the legs of Stephen Fone. The first powerplay of the second session saw disaster struck for the home side as Curtis Huppe netted shorthanded, but the home side levelled again this time from their own new import signing the impressive Slovakian Victor Kubenko.
The first action of the final period saw a bouncing puck from Kurt Reynolds cause all sorts of problems for Fone as Bronnimann tried to get on the rebound as did Ciaran Long who in the process tangled with Hand on the boards and the Manchester man lost his stick.
That somewhat upset the Phoenix player/coach and he screamed at referee Tottman for a penalty and she agreed as shouts from the stands came “Who is running this game you or Tony Hand?”
With Hand’s toys safely back in his pram he took his place on the Phoenix powerplay unit and helped his side take the lead again as Marcus Kristoffersson scored from close range.
Within a minute the Bison door of the sin bin was swinging open again and Manchester made use of the extra man again as Huppe doubled the lead to 4-2.
Bison hit back immediately as a long bomb pass from Kieras set free Bronnimann and even if his first shot was saved, he scooped home the rebound despite being on the ice.
From there the Herd really came on strong and Fone produced the save of the night sliding across his goal crease to deny Nicky Chinn after great inter passing between Ondrej Lauko and Bronnimann.
As the clock ticked down and one final penalty was to kill the Bison’s hopes and leave a sour taste in the mouth of the home fans.
Home forward Long went into the corner by his own net for the puck was upended by Huppe and then when the play was blown dead, Hand was at it again appealing for a penalty and once again referee Tottman agreed sending Long to the penalty box – when it should have been Huppe instead.
That left Manchester to wind down the clock and take the victory, tempers then boiled over after the final buzzer following Kristoffersson’s stupid celebrations in front of the home bench. This led to a big melee and five additional 10 minute misconduct penalties.
“For sure we deserved some of penalties, but for some of them I was thinking what is that for. The one at the end of the game I thought should have been on them, but we have lost because they have scored three powerplay goal pure and simple.
“When we were five-on-five I felt we were the better team. I can’t fault the commitment of my guys and can’t be too down heartened as Manchester are a strong team and we have run them close tonight,” said Moria
On Sunday night, Tom Annetts recorded the first Bison road shut-out since Mark Bernard, now part of the Chicago Blackhawks organisation, blanked the Cardiff Devils in Wales in 2006.
Shut-out number 29 in the club’s history arrived at Telford as the Herd ran out 6-0 winners at a venue which so often in the past has proved a fruitless hunting ground.
However, Basingstoke have not played in Telford since March 1999 when they won 12-1 and their next visit proved just as impressive.
Bronnimann as mentioned earlier led the way with a hat-trick, while the league leading scorer of last term Ondrej Lauko opened his account with a brace, while Kubenko also kept his scoring streak going with his second of the weekend.
The Herd will now hope to continue their winning run as they face the Peterborough Phantoms on Saturday night and then travel to Manchester with the home defeat still fresh in their minds.
Contact the author Graham.Merry@Prohockeynews.com
