Basingstoke Bison had a weekend to forget as they came away with just one point out of a possible four.
The first encounter of the weekend saw the Herd lose against struggling Telford Tigers, at home on March 5.
And an 7-6 overtime win for the Guildford Flames at home on March 6 left Bison remaining in fourth place in the English Premier Ice Hockey League, four points shy of Slough Jets.
At the Basingstoke Arena on Saturday, Joe Henry put the visitors into the lead, seven seconds into the first period. Scott McKenzie extended the lead for the visitors a few moments later.
However, the home side hit back and man-of-the-match Ben Davies pulled one back for Bison.
Daniel Lackey’s first ever goal in a Bison jersey, to level the game at 2-2, was all in vain, as a minute later Telford’s Luke Brittle put the visitors back into the lead.
With Henry’s second of the night, Tiger’s restored their two goal lead. However, a shorthanded strike from Bison player and coach Steve Moria kept Bison in the game at 3-4.
A four-goal frenzy in the final period kept the crowd on their feet. But it was Tiger’s Jack Watkins who drew first blood, but within a minute Moria reduced the lead to one goal again.
Unfortunately, Bison’s comeback was cut short as Andrejs Maslovskis and man-of-the-match Henry wrapped up the scoring and gave the Tigers a deserved 7-4 victory over the Bison.
On Sunday, Bison faced derby rivals Guildford Flames.
Despite the Herd scoring first, less than 30 seconds into the game three unanswered goals in less than five minutes, including the overtime winner by Milos Melicherik, helped the Flames overcome a late two-goal deficit to convert a sure loss into a win against a disappointed Bison.
Bison opened the scoring when Mindy Kieras fired through a gap in the defence. The Flames hit back when Martin Masa finished off a slick passing move to slide the puck around Dean Skinns and level the game.
Bison took the advantage again, shortly after when former Flame Ollie Bronnimann converted on a two-on-one breakaway to give Bison the advantage going into the period break.
Midway into the second period, Lukas Smital levelled the scores for the home side and seconds later, while on a delayed penalty advantage, he found the net again to give the home side their first lead of the night.
Bison could not find an equaliser and the second period ended with the home side in front 3-2.
Chris Wiggins pulled the Herd back on level terms early in the third period and with the momentum clearly swung back in the Herd’s favour, man-of-the-match Davies gave them the lead seconds later in the 43rd minute.
After some fast and furious hockey from both sides, Jez Lundin tapped home a Smital pass to pull the home side level with 10 minutes to play. But after some smart play, Moria gave the Herd the lead once again in the 53rd minute, and with three-minutes to go Ondrej Lauko gave them a healthy two-goal lead with little time to play.
With a tense end to the game in sight, the Flames’ Masa reduced Bison’s advantage to one with 2:22 left on the clock.
The Flames pulled goalie Mark Lee for the extra attacker and the comeback was complete with Smital getting his hat trick goal with 90 seconds remaining, to force the game into overtime.
Bison dominated early in the overtime period. However, a clearing pass saw the Flames’ Melicherik find a gap in the defence and he fired a shot past Skinns to give them the win.
An unlucky weekend for the Bison saw them slip back from their rivals in the league standings. However, they will hope to exact their revenge when they face the Flames at Basingstoke Arena on Saturday before the trip north to face league leaders Manchester Phoenix on Sunday.
Picture by Oliver Dixon
