Two weeks in and Herd are at the top

BASINGSTOKE, UK: The Bison made a stampede to the top of the EPL after their first four point weekend of the season.

The Herd won on home ice over the Manchester Phoenix 6-2 and then on the road at reigning champions Telford Tigers 4-1.

The first part of the double winning weekend, saw Basingstoke  up against a Manchester side minus their star import former NHLer Stanislav Gron.

The Phoenix were the last team to win in Basingstoke, but fell behind to a

great powerplay strike from Ciaran Long.

The Phoenix levelled by the first buzzer thanks to their man-of-the-match James Archer.

The Herd retook the lead with another powerplay strike from Tomas Karpov as he roofed the puck, after Miroslav Vantroba’s shot had been blocked.

The Bison made it 3-1, just 9.1 seconds before the second buzzer thanks to Declan Balmer’s brilliant blue line and Greener added a fourth with just four seconds left.

Manchester certainly came out of the blocks flying in the final session, and it took them just 35 seconds to make it 4-2, as Michal Satek’s cross ice pass saw Mark Thomas hammer home from the right wing.

That was close as the visitors got as Stuart Mogg and then man-of-the-match Alan Lack wrapped up the scoring.

The following night in Telford, Bison’s new import goalie Tomas Hiadlovsky had his best game, so far the Herd and he made 48 saves in a 4-1 win.

The visitors took the lead thanks to Shaun Thompson shorthanded marker the only goal in the first 40 minutes of the contest.

The Tigers levelled things through Nathan Salem, only for the Bison to make full use of a double powerplay as they scored twice from Joe Greener and Ryan Watt with eight minutes left.

Karpov made sure of the victory three minutes from the end of the game.

Bison head coach admitted it had been chalk and cheese weekend of games.

“We turned in our worst performance of the season on Saturday night against Manchester and then our best game of the season against Telford,

“I now want us to carry on from the way we played against Telford this weekend,” said Sheppard.

With a two point spread separating the top nine teams, the Bison know only another a win double will keep them top of the pile.

This weekend, the Bison have a home game against winless Hull Pirates, before heading to the Hive to face arch rivals the Bracknell Bees in the hope of denting their perfect home record so far.

The Herd will be minus captain Aaron Connolly and defenceman Declan Balmer for the two games, but despite being short benched they will be looking for a four point weekend.