Photo (c) Jo Loat
Final Score : Knights 1 Bison 5
By Nigel Simmonds
Refs : Mr Sewell & Mr Staniforth
Lino’s : Mr Hardy & Mr Horner
Following Friday evenings hard fought match, which unfortunately ended in defeat in Swindon, the GalxC Cooling Services sponsored Basingstoke Bison, made the long trek up to Yorkshire, to face the highly rated Leeds Knights.
The Bison, already missing Thomas Banner, Aidan Doughty and Elliott Lewis and they were joined by Brendan Baird & Cain Russell, who both didn’t made the trip.
The last time Bison were in Leeds, they came away with a very close 4-3 victory, but it was a very impressive performance and nettie Alex Mettam stood on his head that night, with some outstanding saves.
This time, Jordan Lawday would get the start and hopefully, he would put in a display, that would give Bison another chance of taking the points back home to Basingstoke.
From the drop of the first puck, the Bison would take the game to the Knights, who’d come through a energy draining, tough shoot-out victory, against the Peterborough Phantoms the previous evening.
Bison continued to press the Knights defence and all that pressure paid off. Adam Harding finding George Norcliffe on the left and his cute cross ice backhand pass, picked out Alex Sampford who buried the puck past Gospel, to give the visitors the lead (6.34).
Leeds came back strong and their top line, although missing Brandon Whistle, were at the heart of most of their attacks. Cole Shudra & the impressive Kieran Brown, were testing Lawday, but Jordan was seeing the puck well and made numerous good saves.
At 13.54, Shudra picked up a Cross-Checking penalty, after he had slammed Ollie Stone into the boards. It looked nasty, but thankfully, Ollie got up unharmed and credit to Shudra, he did go across and apologise, before entering the penalty box.
Bison’s top PP unit came out and set about looking to increase the lead. Norcliffe, Harding & Tait passed the puck around nicely, trying to get a clear shooting lane. Alex Roberts found himself just inside the blue line and as the puck came to him, he let rip with a slap shot, which hit the first Knights penalty killer, so Bison had recycle the puck around again. Norcliffe & Harding combined and they set up Roberts again. This time he managed to get the shot on net and it looked to have taken a couple of redirections, before it flew past Gospel, for the powerplay goal (15.25).
That was all for the action and the Bison took a very deserved lead into the first break, with both netties facing 11 shots on their net.
The Bison came out for the 2nd period, minus key D-man Adam Jones.. hopefully it’s nothing serious !
But, Bison had the best possible atart. A Leeds attack broke down, the puck came around the boards and was picked up by Adam Harding, who quickly set off up ice, with Sampford & Norcliffe in support. Harding waited, before he picked out Norcliffe with a lovely weighted pass and George made no mistake, as he one timed the puck past a diving Gospel (20.50). Bison Captain Elliott Dewey, also picking up an a assist. It was a great start to the middle stanza…
A couple of minutes later and Bison’s Liam Morris, would pick up the first of his 4 penalties of the night… naughty boy !!
He was penalised for Cross Checking (24.32).
From the resulting powerplay for Leeds, it would be the Bison that actually had the best chance to score. Alex Roberts blocked a shot and he was away up ice all alone with only Gospel to beat. He tried to go top shelf, but his shot was disappointingly high and over the bar. Bison managed to kill the penalty and returned to full strength.
Thankfully, Roberts did get another chance soon after and this time he made no mistake. Zack Milton & Ashley Tait creating a good chance for Roberts, but his initial shot was blocked, but luckily it came back to him and this time, he picked his spot and shot the puck low and hard, to Gospels left, into the corner of the net.
It really was no more than the Bison deserved. They were dominating the Knights on their own ice and at the other end, Jordan Lawday was making some outstanding saves, to keep the Knights out.
Liam Morris was called again, this time a Hooking call (36.41), but as before the Bison penalty killers stood firm and made sure they cleared the puck at every opportunity.
The remaining time ran down and as the buzzer sounded to end the 2nd period, the Bison found themselves with a very comfortable 4-0 lead, much to the joy of the good number of their travelling fans.
Shots on Goal were 12 on Knights & 10 on the Bison.
The puck dropped for the start of the 3rd period and Knights would incur up an early penalty. Ross Kennedy picking up a minor Tripping call (41.36), which would bring out the Bison PP unit again.
Harding & Roberts carving out an opportunity for Zack Milton and made no mistake (42.04). He wristed a lovely shot, to the top left corner, past a weary looking Sam Gospel, to make the scoreline 5-0 to the visitors… this brought a cry of “What time is it ?” from the Bison fans….. and the reply, was of course … “It’s 5 past Knights” !!
If i’m being honest, this really was unexpected, but the Bison were absolutely bossing the game, with an outstanding performance… every guy contrubuting & playing their part.
From the face-off, Liam Morris was penalised again, with an Interference call (42.39), a soft call for me.. but, Bison and Lawday saw off the penalty again.. and they were back to full strength soon after.
A few minutes later and Morris picked up his 4th & final penalty of the game….. a Tripping call (51.14).
The Knights PP came out, but within a minute, they also picked up a penalty, with Matty Davies called for Cross-Checking (51.02), as he tried to gain an advantage in front of the Bison net.
A short period of 4-on-4 hockey followed, but both penalties elapsed and both teams returned back to 5 skaters.
Into the final 2 minutes of the game now and we were really time watching, hoping that Jordan would see out the game and get the richly deserved shut-out he deserved….
But alas, Leeds would kill that, when Cole Shudra struck the lone consolation goal, 63 seconds from the end. Hehir & Barnes assisting.
The remaing seconds ran down and at the final buzzer, the Bison had pulled off a result, that i’m sure would’ve raised a few eyebrows, but it was fully deserved !
Ethan Hehir was awarded MoM for Knights & Jordan Lawday was picked for the Bison.
Got to admit, I was gutted for Jordan, as he was so close to the shut out, but to have it snatched away so late on, must’ve hurt a little.
For me, it was the best all round TEAM performance this season and certainly made the long journey up (and back) worth every mile travelled.
Match Stats:
Knights : Shudra 1+0, Barnes 0+1, Hehir 0+1.
Nets : Gospel 25/5 (80.00%)
Bison : Roberts 2+1, Norcliffe 1+2 Milton 1+1, Sampford 1+0, Harding 0+4, Dewey +1, Tait 0+1.
Nets : Lawday 35/1 (97.14%)
Shots on Goal : Knights 35 Bison 25
Penalties (PiMs) : Knights 6 Bison 8
