Final score: Basingstoke Bison 1-2 Sheffield Steeldogs (League)
By Matthew Church
Saturday 12th November 2022
Refs: Bicknell and Korsaks – Linos: George and Lalonde
After a weekend severely interrupted by illness, the GalxC Cooling Services sponsored Basingstoke Bison were back home and almost back to full strength as they welcomed the Sheffield Steeldogs to town, hoping to return to winning ways.
A lively opening period saw both sides go close with Matt Bissonnette for the visitors whistling a shot just wide before home captain George Norcliffe narrowly missed the target from close range. Pressing high almost put the Bison ahead but without warning, they found themselves caught out as a stretch pass in behind the defence saw Matt Bissonnette (assisted by Alex Graham) race towards goal unchallenged before sliding the puck through the 5-hole of Alex Mettam at 4:06 for a 0-1 lead. The remainder of the period became a physical affair and provided a preview of what was to come later in the game, however, the Bison were unable to use this to their advantage and went into the first intermission still one goal behind.
The middle frame began with the Herd knowing a bright start was required if they wanted to rescue anything from a close but brutal contest and less than two minutes into the period, they found themselves deservedly level. Finding an extra gear, import forward Marcel Balaz (King) burst down the right wing and cut in towards goal before firing through netminder Dmitri Zimozdra at 21:44 for a 1-1 score.
Visibly confident from their opening goal, the Bison would outshoot the away side in the second period and looked more threatening on the attack compared to the first frame, with Norcliffe, Lubwele and Landsbergs all thwarted at the last moment by a resolute Steeldogs defence.
The disappointment of those near-misses was compounded at 31:16 when the visitors would re-take the lead, arguably against the run of play, as Vladislavs Vulkanovs (Bell, Brownley) found himself in space just in front of the Bison net and finished off a neat pass from behind the goal to put the Steeldogs 1-2 ahead. No further goals would see the visitors remain in front as the second period ended, but multiple fights towards the end of the frame as well as an argument between the benches increased the tension heading into the final 20 minutes.
The Bison continued to pepper netminder Zimozdra with shots from all angles as the final period moved forwards but the Steeldogs defence was on form and continued to frustrate the home side. As the game approached the 50 minute mark, Zac Milton went closest for the Herd as he smashed the puck off the bar from in close, to the agony of the home crowd.
At the other end, the visitors also saw a quickfire effort deflect off the bar to safety as they looked to put the game to bed, but were mainly focused on keeping the Herd at bay. Pulling the netminder in a final gamble to tie the contest, the Bison surged forward despite Marcel Balaz taking a penalty inside the final minute, but ultimately the Herd would run out of time as a fractious game reached its conclusion and left the Steeldogs to take the 2 points back home with them after a 1-2 victory.
Next up at home for the Herd is a game on Friday 18th November with a midweek face off time of 8pm (Doors open 7.15pm), when the Bison play host to the Milton Keynes Lightning. See you all there!
Tickets are available to purchase for this game from the following link:https://iceaccount.co.uk/basingstoke-bison?Reference=Bison-Website
Match Stats:
Bison stats: Balaz 1+0, King 0+1
Netminder: Alex Mettam 26/28 (92.86%)
Steeldogs stats: Bell 0+1, Bissonnette 1+0, Brownley 0+1, Graham 0+1, Vulkanovs 1+0
Netminder: Dmitri Zimozdra 38/39 (97.44%)
PIM: Bison 46 – Steeldogs 49. SOG: Bison 39 – Steeldogs 28.
Bison MOM: Balaz – Steeldogs MOM: Zimozdra
