BASINGSTOKE, UK- Basingstoke Bison British forward Chris Wiggins had his best weekend to date for the Herd as he scored four times including his first ever senior hat-trick. The giant of the Basingstoke offense nabbed his trio as the Bison Brit line came up trumps to help the Herd overturn a 4-2 deficit and win 6-5 against the visiting Telford Tigers on Saturday night. Wiggins in only his second season with the team netted a career high 10 times last term, which included one brace in the 8-5 home win over Bracknell.
On Saturday he went one better and his super goal scoring weekend took his tally this campaign to six already. It was a great early birthday present for the forward who turns 23 on October 13th. “It was brilliant to score a hat-trick and it is my first since I played at under-19. I have to say a lot of credit should go to my line mates Hemmer (Andy Hemmings) and Tosh (Tony Redmond). They set me up all I had to do was put the puck in the net,” said Chris Wiggins. “He certainly deserved his man-of-the-match award tonight. It was a great achievement for him to score a hat-trick and it was well deserved,” said Basingstoke player/coach Steve Moria. The Brit line ended the night plus three in a game which the Tigers very nearly managed to take to overtime. In a wide open first period where players on both sides were given room to play, it was Telford who led at the first break thanks to Josh Bruce and powerplay strike from former NHLer Chris Allen. In between them Wiggins opened the Bison account. Within the first minute of the second period, Telford added a third goal as Marek Hornak wristed a shot over the shoulder of Tom Annetts. The Bison reduced the lead thanks to a close range shot from Steve Moria, but then another powerplay goal from Joe Henry made it 4-2 to the visitors.
The Herd hit back as Mindy Kieras netted a powerplay strike for his side assisted by Moria. The helper gave the Basingstoke player/coach his 206th league point for the team and saw him displace Russ Parent in the club’s all time top 10 scoring list.
The final period of the Telford game saw the home side dominate as Ondrej Lauko and then a Wiggins brace to complete his hat-trick made it 6-4. Unfortunately the celebrations after Wiggins hat-trick of gloves and helmets being thrown onto the ice saw referee Nigel Boniface give Telford one last powerplay. Daniel Mackriel scored to set up a tense final few minutes until the Tigers were penalised themselves for too many men on the ice. “I don’t think we played particularly well in the first two periods especially in defence I think guys were making a lot of wrong decisions,” said Bison player/coach Steve Moria. On Sunday night, the Basingstoke made sure of maintaining third spot in the league as they won in Peterborough 4-3, despite a late fightback from the Phantoms. Wiggins for the second night running opened the Bison’s account and then the first league goals of the season from Nicky Chinn and Andrew Hemmings made it 3-0 at the second buzzer. Back came the Phantoms from Maris Ziedins and Joe Miller, before Chinn made it 4-2. A goal in the final minute from Darius Lelenas set up a tense final minute, but the Herd held on to pick up their first four point weekend of the season. “We played a good road game in Peterborough and I was really pleased with four points this weekend,” said Moria. This coming weekend, Basingstoke currently third face double header action with fourth placed Slough Jets. This will be the first time Bison’s summer signing from Slough Ciaran Long has faced his former Jets team mates which is sure to add extra spice to both games. The Bison open the series at home, before the return at the Hanger. Contact the author Graham.Merry@Prohockeynews.com
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