Final score: Basingstoke Bison 1-8 Milton Keynes Lightning
By Matthew Church
Friday 18th November 2022
Refs: Matthews and Poulton – Linos: Prior and Sore
In a change to the regular weekend routine, it was home hockey on a Friday night for the GalxC Cooling Services sponsored Basingstoke Bison as they welcomed the high-flying Milton Keynes Lightning to town.
The depth in attacking prowess for the visitors was on display early in the contest with play predominantly located in the Bison defensive zone but they held firm and frustrated the Lightning until almost halfway through the first period. At 9:32 a speculative flick from behind the goal line by Rio Grinnell-Parke (assisted by Green and Barnes-Garner) deflected off the back of netminder Jordan Lawday and over the line for a 0-1 lead.
A few minutes later and the away side doubled their advantage courtesy of a smooth powerplay goal at 12:16 when a pass between the circles left Deivids Sarkanis (Wallace, Talbot) in acres of space to fire home with ease. Despite being heavily out-shot, the Bison kept the Lightning at bay for the remainder of the period to give themselves some hope in the middle frame.
The Herd looked refreshed and rejuvenated as they returned to the ice for the second period and tried to find a way into the game, finding space and time for more shots but none of them were able to penetrate the Lightning defence. Fast forward to just past the halfway point and finally, the Bison solved the puzzle of netminder Hedley and scored their first of the game at 32:43. A loose shot came back out from behind the goal and fell perfectly for Zac Milton (Lubwele) to fire home just before the net became dislodged, moving 1-2 behind.
The joy of the home fans was sadly short-lived as less than two minutes had passed before the visitors extended their lead again at 34:24 as a swift move resulted in Sam Talbot (Norris, Hopkins) slamming the puck past a stricken Lawday in goal. The Lightning then scored their fourth of the night barely 60 seconds later, as a pass across the circles found Jack Hopkins (Talbot, Norris) in space to wrist home with precision at 35:25, moving his team 1-4 in front.
Fully in the ascendancy, the visitors had time to make the score 1-5 before the second period ended when Sean Norris (Talbot, Griffin) received the puck from the corner and had time to snipe home at 38:20. Going into the final frame, the Bison knew a heroic effort would be needed to rescue a result, however the Lightning had other ideas and inflicted further misery on the Herd at 45:06 as James Griffin (Talbot, Norris) tipped a long distance shot into the net for their sixth tally, which resulted in the home side switching netminders as Alex Mettam came into the game.
At 51:23 the away team moved themselves 1-7 ahead courtesy of Bobby Chamberlain (Wallace, Sarkanis), before Sean Norris (Hopkins, Christie) took advantage of the Bison defence giving him too much space and he walked in to fire top shelf at 53:23, finishing the scoring for the night and ending a tortuous night for the Herd as the Lightning left 1-8 winners.
Next up for the Herd at home, is a visit from the Hull Seahawks on Saturday 26th November. See you all there!
Tickets for Saturday’s game that faces off at 6.30pm are available to purchase from the following link: https://iceaccount.co.uk/basingstoke-bison?Reference=Bison-Website
Match Stats:
Bison stats: Lubwele 0+1, Milton 1+0
Netminder: Jordan Lawday 16/22 (72.73%) – Alex Mettam 5/7 (71.43%)
Lightning stats: Talbot 1+4, Norris 2+2, Hopkins 1+2, Griffin 1+1, Wallace 0+2, Barnes-Garner 0+1, Chamberlain 1+0, Christie 0+1, Green 0+1, Grinnell-Parke 1+0, Sarkanis 1+0
Netminder: Jordan Hedley 21/22 (95.45%)
PIM: Bison 4 – Lightning 28. SOG: Bison 22 – Lightning 29.
Bison MOM: Banner – Lightning MOM: Hopkins
