Image (C) Jo Loat
Final score: Basingstoke Bison 0-7 Milton Keynes Lightning (League)
By Matthew Church
Saturday 4th March 2023
Refs: Belfitt and Hewitt – Linos: Hill and Sitch-Cunningham
Entering the penultimate month of the season, pressure was mounting on the GalxC Cooling Services sponsored Basingstoke Bison as they continued fighting for a play-off quarter final spot. Standing in their way on this occasion, were the high-flying Milton Keynes Lightning who themselves, were locked in a battle for the league title.
Backed by a passionate army of fans, the away side set about demonstrating their offensive skills early on and it took barely three minutes for them to take the lead. A pass from behind the net was too quick for Bison players to stop and Sam Talbot (assisted by Sarkanis and Chamberlain) took his time to fire home a wrist-shot at 3:02. The Herd knew they would have to be strong defensively in order to collect anything from the game, but at 9:19 they were picked apart as the Lightning doubled their lead, with Zaine McKenzie (Christie, Sarkanis) scoring from in between the face-off circles for a 0-2 lead.
Against the run of play, the home side did create some chances of their own, as Gaël Lubwele and Liam Morris saw efforts stopped by the impressive Jordan Hedley in net. However, the Lightning rounded off a dominant first period by extending their lead to three at 15:13, when a move that dangled around the defence led to a back-post tap in for Deivids Sarkanis (Talbot, Chamberlain), leaving the Herd with a mountain to climb in the remaining 40 minutes.
The middle frame was a slightly more even-affair, as the Herd looked to break the deadlock and tested netminder Hedley numerous times, with Hallam Wilson having the best chance on a solo breakaway but he was unable to find the net. The only goal of the period came early on, in fact, as a powerplay effort from Bobby Chamberlain (Knaggs, Green) was blasted home from a one-timer shot at 23:38 to put the Lightning 0-4 in front. Frustrations grew as the period moved along, with an altercation between Alex Sampford and Ross Green leading to a fairly decent ‘fight’, perhaps giving the home crowd their only victory of the night. The gulf in quality between the teams was all too apparent though and the home crowd felt uninspired as the second period break began.
The final period mirrored the opening frame, as the visitors appeared to camp out in the Bison defensive zone at times and were just waiting for the right moment to strike. The Lightning put themselves 0-5 in front at 49:00 with another powerplay effort, this time from Sam Talbot (Wallace, L.Stewart) who poked the puck home after an initial shot had hit the post. Shortly afterwards, young forward Cam Hamill (McKenzie) made it 0-6 with a fine effort at 51:23, punishing the Bison for coughing the puck up on the left wing by honing in on goal and firing home at the near post.
Late on, there was time for former-Bison forward Sam Talbot (Sarkanis, Christie) to complete a superb hat-trick with a goal that seemed to be a carbon-copy of his first, accepting a pass from behind the net as the home side were guilty of puck watching, before quickly snapping home a shot at 55:33 to put the Lightning 0-7 ahead. A disastrous night for the Bison was concluded when the final buzzer sounded, as the visitors took a highly deserved two points home and gave the raucous band of away fans plenty to cheer about.
Match Stats:
Bison stats: N/A
Netminder: Alex Mettam 24/31
Lightning stats: Sarkanis 1+3, Talbot 3+1, Chamberlain 1+2, Christie 0+2, McKenzie 1+1, Green 0+1, Hamill 1+0, Knaggs 0+1, L.Stewart 0+1, Wallace 0+1
Netminder: Jordan Hedley 20/20 (100.00%
PIM: Bison 15 – Lightning 11. SOG: Bison 20 – Lightning 31.
Bison MOM: Liddiard – Lightning MOM: Martelly
Next up at home for the Bison, is a local-derby with the Berkshire-based Bees IHC on Saturday 11th March, in a game that needs 100% from start to finish.
Tickets for Saturdays crunch game in the fight for a Play Off position are available to purchase from the following link: https://iceaccount.co.uk/basingstoke-bison?Reference=Bison-Website
See you all there!
