19th/20th November
By Anthony Russell
It was a roller-coaster weekend for the Bison and now it’s time to see what happened in the rest of the National Division.
Saturday
After a successful night in Basingstoke on Friday, the MK Lightning headed home to face the Raiders for what would be their second game of 3 on the weekend. Deivids Sarkanis got the hosts off to a good start with the Latvian turning provider for Bobby Chamberlain moments later for 2-0. The Raiders responded through Harry Gulliver but goals from Callum Field, Tim Wallace, Hallden Barnes-Garner and a second of the night from Chamberlain made it 6-1 after just 20 minutes. Amazingly the teams battled through a scoreless second period but the scoring restarted early in the third as Jake Sylvester got one back for the visitors. MK managed the game well however and though Gulliver added his second of the night with just over two minutes to play, 6-3 was the final scoreline to give MK their second win in 24 hours.
Elsewhere near the top of the table, Peterborough welcomed the Bees to Bretton and had an early lead through Glenn Billing and Corey McEwen for 2-0 inside 8 minutes which was made 3-0 in the dying moments of the third through Lukas Sladkovsky. The Bees got one back in the second through Dan Rose but it was 4-1 at the second break as McEwen again found the net. Again the Bees got a goal early in a period as they started the third with a goal from Juha Lindgren but Ralfs Circenis would convert to make it 5-2.Dominik Gabaj would score to make it 5-3 but the Phantoms held on for the victory.
Swindon and Sheffield clashed at The Link Centre, the visitors taking the lead in the 6th minute through Alex Graham and Cam Brownley who made it 2-0 in the space of a few seconds. Swindon would pull one back through Tomasz Malasinski and though Alex Graham would make it 3-1, a second from Malasinski would make it 3-2 at the first buzzer. In the second goals from Matt Bissonnette and a second from Brownley gave Sheffield a commanding 5-2 lead however two goals before the end of the second from Balint Pakodzi and Floyd Taylor made it 5-4 at the second break. With time running down in the third, the hosts had to throw the kitchen sink at the visitors and it got the result as Russ Cowley tied the game with 85 seconds to play. Overtime couldn’t separate the sides so penalty shots were called upon. With everyone having missed, Vlads Vulkanovs scored in the final round and a save on Reed Sayers from Dmitri Zimozdra meant the Steeldogs took the second point back to Yorkshire.
Leeds welcomed Telford to Elland Road for a seismic clash of the old masters and the new, young pretenders. Neither side could find the net in the first bit in the second Brodie Jesson put the Tigers in front but the scores were level at the end of the frame thanks to Cole Shudra. The third followed a similar pattern; Vladimir Luka put the Tigers ahead but a second of the night from Shudra had the score tied at 2-2 at the end of 60 minutes. The shootout ended up being needed. Luka and Finley Howells found the net and only Shudra could for the Knights as Zack Brooks missed the deciding shot. The Tigers became just the second team to take points from the league leaders.
Sunday
It was an early afternoon faceoff in Sheffield as the Steeldogs and Phantoms did battle. A scoreless first period gave way to goals in the second. Tom Palmer gave the hosts the lead but Ales Padelek tied the game and Glenn Billing gave Peterborough the lead heading into the third. The third was a tense battle but late on the visitors struck and took the win. Ales Padelek scored with just over 4 minutes to play and an empty net goal from Duncan Speirs gave Slava Koulikov’s side a 4-1 win.
Having beaten them in Leeds, Telford took on the Knights in Shropshire. The hosts would lead 1-0 at the end of the first period thanks to a powerplay goal from Jason Silverthorn. The lead lasted just 25 seconds into the second as Cole Shudra tied the game, his second of the night made it 2-1 in the 27th minute and he completed a natural hat trick in the 30th minute before Kieran Brown made t 4-1. It was 5-1 by the end of the second thanks to Zack Brooks. That put the game to bed and the Knights held their hosts at bay during the third to avenge their lost the night before.
After losing out to the Bison on Saturday, Bristol headed to Romford to take on the Raiders. It started well for the Pitbulls as Owen Sobchak have them the lead after 91 seconds but it was 1-1 at the end of the first as Aaron Connolly tied the game up in the 13th minute. From there, it didn’t go well for the Pitbulls. Harry Gulliver, Elliott Dewey and Jake Sylvester made it 4-1 by the 26th minute mark, forcing the visitors into taking their timeout. Despite a 5 on 3 against them, the Raiders held on and Callum Wells made it 5-1. In the third it was just the hosts compounding the misery. A second from Connolly, a second from Sylvester and a goal from Jack Cooper rounded out an 8-1 win for Sean Easton’s side.
It was an M4 derby in Slough between the Bees and Wildcats, the visitors having the slim 1-0 lead at the first break thanks to Aaron Nell. Nell would double the advantage himself early in the second but an Alan Lack goal got the Bees into the game. However it would be 3-1 to Swindon at the second break thanks to a goal from Colby Tower. Russ Cowley made it 4-1 just 39 seconds into the third and the scoring was rounded off by the unlikeliest of all scorers. With the Bees on the powerplay, they pulled the goalie for the extra attacker but a misplaced pass saw the puck sail into their own net. We don’t do own goals in hockey so that meant it was credited to the last Swindon player to touch the puck meaning Wildcats netminder Renny Marr added his name to the scoresheet as Swindon took the 5-1 win.
Hull welcomed MK to the world’s most versatile arena looking to stop a perfect weekend for the Lightning. It started well for the Seahawks as Sam Towner put the home side ahead but Hull born Bobby Chamberlain made it 1-1 to have the scores tied at the first break. The Lightning would take the lead through Hallden Barnes-Garner but Andrej Themar, finally in possession of a visa that took a parliamentary question to get, equalised to make it 2-2. The visitors would take the lead back through a Tim Wallace powerplay goal to make it 3-2 at the second break. Hull would battle valiantly, clearly buoyed by the arrival of Themar but a late Deivids Sarkanis goal put the game to bed. 4-2 was the final score and the Lightning had the maximum 6 points.
Anthony Russell is the writer of Banners On The Wall (http://bannersonthewall.wordpress.com) which has covered the Bison and British hockey for the last 11 years. He hosts the BOTW What’s Current Stream, the NIHL’s live show for news and views, Wednesday night at 8pm at Twitter.com/BannersOTW
Tickets for this weeks Saturday nights Planet Ice National League event against the Hull Seahawks are available to purchase from the following link: https://iceaccount.co.uk/basingstoke-bison?Reference=Bison-Website
