Images (C) Jo Loat
Final score: Basingstoke Bison 1-3 Leeds Knights (League)
By Matthew Church
Saturday 15th October 2022
Refs: Wells and Williams – Linos: Davies and Sitch-Cunningham.
Back to their regular home-game slot of Saturday night, the GalxC Cooling Services sponsored Basingstoke Bison were set for a stern test as they welcomed the league-leading Leeds Knights to town, in the first of a home & away weekend against the West Yorkshire side.
The visitors looked confident in the opening stages and an early powerplay opportunity threatened to make the Herd’s task even more difficult, but thankfully the home side remained strong defensively and kept the game level as the first period wore on. Despite being heavily out-shot, the Bison did go closest to scoring the opening goal of the contest when Gaël Lubwele narrowly missed a tip-in effort, but no further clear chances meant the game entered the first period break still level at 0-0.
The middle frame quickly produced the game’s first goal, although to the frustrations of the home crowd, it would be scored by the Knights at 21:25 with a powerplay strike. A wild shot rebounded high off the plexi behind the goal, back over netminder Alex Mettam and landed fortuitously on the stick of Lewis Baldwin (assisted by Haywood and Cooper), who had plenty of time to fire into the Bison net for a 0-1 lead. Not to be unsettled, the Herd immediately went in search of an equaliser and were playing with an elevated level of hunger and confidence in comparison to the first period.
A four-minute powerplay gifted the home side with a golden chance to level the game but they were ultimately left frustrated as the Knights survived unscathed, netminder Sam Gospel doing his usual impression of a brick wall. The Herd had yet to find the net as the second period ended but were clearly pushing the league leaders hard and certainly remained in with a chance.
The Bison needed an early goal in the final period to stand any chance of victory and an early goal is precisely what they were rewarded with at 44:27, to the jubilation of the home crowd. Pinching along the left boards and stealing the puck near the neutral zone, Zac Milton (unassisted) skated in alone and sniped home past Sam Gospel with conviction to level the game at 1-1. An incredibly close game entered the final 10 minutes with both sides searching hard for the game winner and at 53:55 it arrived, to the heartbreak of the Bison faithful.
A shot through traffic from Grant Cooper (Brooks, Haywood) left netminder Alex Mettam unsighted as the puck flew into the net and deflated the hopes of the home fans, as the Knights moved 1-2 ahead.
In a desperate attempt to salvage at least a point from the contest, the Bison pulled their netminder in favour of the extra attacking forward with less than 2 minutes to go, but it would unfortunately backfire when Adam Barnes (Brown) escaped pressure to score into the empty net at 59:45 and move the Knights 1-3 ahead. The chances of a comeback were now infinitesimal, leaving the table-toppers to collect another two points as the buzzer sounded.
Ultimately, the Herd came away without anything to show for their effort, but it was clear that fans should be extremely proud of the determination on show and confident this kind of display will produce points more often than not.
With no home game this coming weekend, the next contest on home ice is against Bristol Pitbulls on Wednesday 26th October. See you all there!
Match Stats:
Bison stats: Milton 1+0
Netminder: Alex Mettam 30/2 (93.33%). Empty net 1/1 (100%)
Knights stats: Cooper 1+1, Haywood 0+2, Baldwin 1+0, Barnes 1+0, Brooks 0+1, Brown 0+1
Netminder: Sam Gospel 23/1 (95.65%)
PIM: Bison 25 – Knights 29. SOG: Bison 23 – Knights 31.
Bison MOM: Milton – Knights MOM: D. Hehir
Tickets for a week on Wednesday, Face Off 8pm (26th October 2022) home game versus Bristol Pitbulls are available to purchase from the following link: https://iceaccount.co.uk/basingstoke-bison?Reference=Bison-Website
