Second-string ice hockey squad Basingstoke Buffalo kicked off their New Year campaign with a 5-3 win over Swindon Wildcats 2.
Sunday’s home match saw veteran striker Greg Martyn bank a hat-trick. Team manager Andy Worship praised the squad’s hard-earned win.
“The game was won by some good defensive skills, and some great netminding by Aaron Taylor,” he said. “It was a cracking game to watch, a good advert for the sport at this level.
“You could not fault either team for the effort they put it and it was just down to us being able to score more goals than them.
“The game saw a sterling performance by Greg Martyn who took a well deserved man-of-the-match.”
The Buffalo are fourth in the ENL South 2 division, five points off Chelmsford Warriors but with four games in hand.
The Wildcats opened the scoring through Andrew Shurmer.
Seconds later Martyn netted his first. The score remained level going into the second period. Two minutes after the buzzer the Wildcats took the lead again, with Shurmer netting his second.
But sustained pressure from the Buffalo saw Simon Beere equalisewith only seconds of the second period remaining, after good play from David Collins and Ashley Skinns.
The Wildcats took the lead for the final time though Luke Merrick with 20 minutes left.
The Buffalo dug deep and pulled back two goals in 30 seconds.
Martyn netted his brace following a Mark Pitts setup before bagging his hat-trick after being assisted from the blueline by netminder Taylor.
Beere completed the scoring eight-minutes from time to round off a convincing win for the Buffalo.
The squad are next in action on Saturday taking on seventh place Lee Valley Lions.
