Photo (C) Jo Loat
Final score: Basingstoke Bison 3-4 Leeds Knights (League)
By Matthew Church
Saturday 18th December 2021
Refs: Korsaks and Matthews – Linos: Gottlibet and Prior
With one more home game before Christmas, the GalxC Cooling Services sponsored Basingstoke Bison were hoping to give their fans an extra dose of festive cheer and follow on from last weekend’s double success, as they welcomed the Leeds Knights to town.
A positive start was crucial for Herd and they most definitely had the upper hand early on, testing opposition netminder Sam Gospel a number of times but without any tangible success. Not to be discouraged, their endeavour paid off at 12:01 when the Bison scored the first goal of the game as Ryan Sutton (assisted by Thomas Banner and Adam Jones) was on hand to poke the puck home, after Gospel had stopped an initial shot from distance.
Credit to young Thomas Banner on his first senior point for the Herd! With plenty of firepower and British talent on their roster, the Knights are certainly too good to write off and at 16:45, they levelled the game at 1-1 thanks to a goal which wasn’t too dissimilar from the Bison effort a few minutes earlier.
A long range blast was partially stopped by netminder Alex Mettam but fell just behind him, with Adam Barnes (Davies, Solder) quickest to react and managing to poke the puck across the line.
Having been the more dominant in the opening period, the Herd may have felt disappointed to have gone into the break without a lead, but they did not have to wait long before putting themselves in front once again and it came in style.
With a peach of a goal at 20:33, George ‘Gordon’ Norcliffe (Doughty, Harding) finished off a 3-on-2 break by taking the drop pass from Aidan Doughty and firing a bullet top-shelf past Gospel for a deserved 2-1 lead to the home side. Pressure would begin to build the other way after this and the Knights started to look dangerous with the Elite League-bound trio of Kieran Brown, Cole Shudra & Brandon Whistle looking particularly menacing and it would be those exact names who combined to level once again at 27:10. Brandon Whistle (Brown, Shudra) taking advantage of an error in the Bison zone and sending a rocket into the net for a 2-2 scoreline.
Thankfully, as the middle frame drew towards its conclusion, there was time for one more goal and to the relief of the home faithful, it went the way of the Bison. After spawning a breakaway chance minutes earlier, import forward Alex Roberts (unassisted) picked up the loose puck down low on the left wing, drove straight towards the net and beat Gospel at his near post with a sublime effort at 39:49, handing the Herd a 3-2 lead after 40 minutes.
Somehow, only a single penalty had been called during the game up until now, meaning that when Archie Hazeldine was called for Tripping at 45:32, the Bison knew this was a golden opportunity to extend their lead but unfortunately, they drew a blank and in typical fashion were made to pay immediately. At 48:58 the Knights brought themselves level once more as Kieran Brown (Whistle, Hazeldine) sent a great shot from the point past Mettam before he had time to react.
As the final period moved past its half way point, both sides were searching for a potentially game-winning piece of magic and to the annoyance of the home crowd, it would be the ever-dangerous Knights trio of Brown, Shudra and Whistle who combined to produce it.
Timed at 52:30, Brandon Whistle (Brown, Shudra) broke Bison hearts when he took a pass into the slot and ripped the puck into the net with lightning speed, putting his team ahead for the first time in the contest. Despite Alex Mettam being pulled from net in favour of the extra attacker, that lead would remain intact as the clock wound down and it therefore saw the home side unfortunately come out second-best in a 3-4 thrilling encounter.
Next up at home for the Herd, a visit from old rivals the Swindon Wildcats on Monday 27th December, with a 6:30pm face off! Until then…
Merry Christmas everyone, be safe 🙂
Bison MOM: Liam Morris – Knights MOM: Brandon Whistle
Bison stats: Banner 0+1, Doughty 0+1, Harding 0+1, Jones 0+1, Norcliffe 1+0, Roberts 1+0, Sutton 1+0
Netminder: Alex Mettam 18/4 (77.78%)
Knights stats: Brown 1+2, Whistle 2+1, Shudra 0+2, Barnes 1+0, Davies 0+1, Hazeldine 0+1, Solder 0+1
Netminder: Sam Gospel 31/3 (90.32%)
PIM: Bison 0 – Knights 4. SOG: Bison 31 – Knights 18.
