This week’s home game for the GalxC Cooling Services Basingstoke Bison will be on Friday night, when they welcome Swindon Wildcats to the Silverdome, face off is 7.30pm.
Saturday is an off day for Ash & the team, before a Sunday road trip to Slough to take on the team formally known as the Bracknell Bees, now named Bees IHC, face off is 5.00pm.
Aaron Nell is the Wildcats Player/Coach, while Sam ‘Bully’ Bullas captains the team in what is his 12th season with the Wiltshire club.
New faces at the Link Centre for the 2021/22 season are, 6’ 4” Forward Emil Svec from the Czech Rep, Edgars Bebris returns after signing for MK Lightning in what was the season that never happened, D-man Sam Smith who made 82 appearances for the Herd and finally Basingstoke born nettie Dean ‘Deano’ Skinns who returns after last pulling on a Wildcats jersey in the 2012/13 season. Additionally, 22 year old Forward Bálint Pákozdi is a dual Hungarian/UK national, who began his hockey career as part of the Swindon based Okanagan Academy.
Coach Nell, always keen to give youth a chance, has included 3 players to his roster who were more recently part of the Okanagan Academy, Oliver Endicott (17), Bailey Hind-Pitcher (18) and Cain Russell (17).
Bison v Wildcats fixtures are without doubt hard fought but exciting occasions, which fans of both sides look forward to, let’s hope Friday night continues this trend.
Sunday’s game will be the first meeting between the teams since the Bees relocated to Slough following the closure of The Hive.
The Bees are captained by Basingstoke born Stuart Mogg, one of 4 ex-Bison players on the roster, the others being Josh Kelly, Bayley Harewood and Josh Smith.
Slovakian import Dominik Gabaj, in his 2nd season, takes on the role of Player/Assistant Coach while 22 year old Swedish born forward Niklas Sandberg Órnmarker, replaces ex-Bison Roman Malinik as their second import.
Other fresh faces on the Bees roster this season are, nettie Curtis Warburton who signed from Sheffield Steeldogs, forwards Garry Simpson from Murrayfield Racers and Michael Power who signed from Pueblo Bulls in America, along with Luke Smital (18), Harry Harcup (21), Christian Mohr (18) and dual Finnish/UK national Juha Lindgren (18) all from the Slough Jets NIHL 1 side.
Games between these teams are certainly passionate affairs on and off the ice, generally attracting good attendances, hopefully a sizeable number of Bison fans will make the trip up the M4 to support the Herd.
TICKET INFORMATION FOR SUNDAY:
Bees management have requested that all fans who are attending the game buy in advance as they are expecting the game to be busy one.
