Tigers slip is costly in defeat to Bison

Tigers coach Tom Watkins blamed a five-minute lapse for defeat during Saturday night’s fiercely-fought encounter with Basingstoke Bison.

Both sides held a second period lead at Telford Ice Rink, before Basingstoke’s double strike at the end of the session proved decisive in securing a 5-2 victory.

The Tigers must now recover in time for Sunday’s visit of Milton Keynes to Shropshire, albeit with Blaho Novak suspended after he was ejected from the game on 15 minutes for a head-butt.

Watkins said: “I thought for 35 minutes tonight we were excellent. We battled hard, kept the puck well and dominated the second period, until the last five minutes.

“Ultimately, those five minutes cost us the game tonight. It is a fact that we are short on bodies and we lost Blaho when our energy systems were down.

“To give up two quick goals doesn’t give you a chance to step on the gas in the third period, because of that lack of bodies. It allowed Basingstoke to shut up shop and keep us to the outside.

“For half of the game I was pleased with how we played.”

A breathless opening period saw the Bison score first on 18 minutes, following the ejection of Novak, before Telford hit back through Max Birbraer just after the interval.

Peter Szabo handed the Tigers a 2-1 lead on 25 minutes, with Watkins’ men looking set to dominate Basingstoke during the middle portion of the game.

But those two Bison goals on 37 and 38 minutes appeared to take the wind out of Telford’s sails, before a further strike from the visitors after six minutes of the final period.

The Shropshire men replaced Thomas Murdy with an extra forward in a bid to regain ground, but the visitors sealed with an empty-net goal on 59 minutes.

Watkins added: “The games are coming thick fast at the moment, so with Blaho now out, alongside the injured guys, we’ve got to bounce back against Milton Keynes.

“The guys need to play hard and do the simple things better tomorrow night. We were trying to overplay at times and we need to create offence when we’re behind.