Image (C0 Jo Loat
FINAL SCORE : PHANTOMS 4 BISON 1
(1-0, 3-1, 0-0)
By Nigel Simmonds
Refs : Mr Hewitt & Mr Korsaks
Lino’s : Mr Fraley & Mr Groom
After Saturday evenings very disappointing shut-out loss,
your GalxC Cooling Services sponsored Basingstoke Bison, made the trip up to Peterborough, for the return leg of this weekends, back to back games, against the Phantoms.
The Bison, were without Carl Graham, Roman Cathcart, Oli Hemmings-Maher, Josh Kelly & Aidan Doughty.
Jordan Marr & Alex Mettam would both get the nod to start between the pipes.
A quite quiet start from both teams, with Phantoms moving the puck around well, but the Bison being able to break up the play.
The Phantoms would get the first real chance, when Austin Mitchell-King got away a good shot, but Lawday made a comfortable glove save.
Seconds later though and the home side would take the lead. Lukas Sladovsky & Corey McEwan combining well, to set up Martin Susters at the back door, for an easy tap home (5.41). The Bison would protest the goal, as they felt it was offside.. but the officials ruled it wasn’t and the goal stood.
The Bison pressed for a quick reply and almost got it, when Alex Sampford got free, but his shot was well saved by Marr. The visitors then had another great chance, with a loose puck falling to Hallam Wilson, but sadly he just fanned on his shot.
The home side weren’t far off going further ahead, when Ralf Circenis saw his shot just skim the bar, with Lawday beaten.
Bison had another chance, when Gaël Lubwele got through, but just as he deked Marr, the nettie craftily dislodged the net, to stop the play.
Phantoms almost doubled their lead, but Tom Norton saw his rocket of a shot, nestle into the chest pad of Jordan Lawday.
Phantoms would then pick up the first penalty of the evening, when Glenn Billing was given a Tripping call (18.15). Bison’s best chance on the powerplay, was a Lubwele shot, but Marr saved well.
At the first period break, the home side went in, with a slender 1-0 lead.
The Bison started the 2nd period, with just 15 secs remaing on Billings penalty, but that was soon killed off and Phantoms returned to full strength.
The Phantoms would up the pressure on the Bison net and it would pay off, with an almost identical goal to their first. Great tic-tac-toe passing, between Bowering & Susters, finding Sladovsky open at the back door and he fired home (25.22).
That was quickly followed by another Phantoms goal (26.31), when Sladovsky turned provider, as he set up Luc Johnson, to fire his shot past Lawday, for a 3-0 lead. That prompted Bison Coach Ashley Tait, to call his Time Out and just try and calm things down a bit.
The officials weren’t covering themselves in glory, with some very strange decisions and a couple of non calls, that were getting both sets of players/benches a bit irate.
One of those decisions cost the Bison, the next play. What looked a perfectly good hit on the boards by Lubwele, was called as Interference (27.46) and from the resulting powerplay, the Phantoms increased their lead. Duncan Speirs (Norton, Sladovsky) netting, when his shot beat Lawday, who looked slightly unsighted.
Half through the game now and Phantoms were sitting very pretty, at 4-0.
There was, as there always is, when these two teams meet, a little amount of fiestyness, creeping into the game. Gretton & Petts having a coming together behind the net, after the play had stopped, but no penalties were called
Bison were having a good spell of play and that was helped, by Jack Peacock, who managed to draw a penalty from Martin Susters. Peacock got entangled with Susters in the Bison zone, in which the Phantoms players helmet was dislodged, so he had to get off the ice straight away, but as he was skating to the bench, he made sure he got a retaliatory hit in on Peacock, who was close to the Bison bench. This earned Susters, a double minor penalty. A minor for Interference & the other for, an Illegal Equipment penalty (38.44), for not leaving instantly.
This gave the Bison a small luxury of a 4 min powerplay, which they would use and finally get a goal past Marr, over almost 5 periods of hockey this weekend.
Zack Milton doing great work behind the net and he slipped through a nice pass to Liam Morris, who buried the puck into the net (39.30), giving the travelling Bison fans something to cheer.
At the second interval, the home side went in with a comfortable 4-1 lead.
The Bison would start the final period, still with 1.30 of powerplay time. But sadly, the Phantoms would kill the penalty. As soon as it finished, the Bison found themselves penalised, with George Norcliffe, picking up a Tripping call (41.37). But, like the Phantoms, the Bison managed to kill the penalty successfully and returned to full strength.
A few minutes later and Phantoms would get called again. Luc Johnson with a Tripping call (46.41), but unfortunately the Bison couldn’t take advantage of the extra skater.
Into the final 10 mins of the game now and then, a bad hit on Paul Petts by Tom Norton, behind the Phantoms net. The Peterborough player going right through Petts, appearing to pile him head first into the boards. He needed some medical attention and after a couple of minutes, was slowly raised to his feet and helped off the ice. Norton receiving a 5 min major penalty (51.02) and rightly so too.
That hit bought back the chippiness back into the game and soon as the penalty started, the Bison would pick up a penalty. Edgars Landsbergs getting called for Cross-Checking (51.43).
That would mean some 4-on-4 hockey for a couple of minutes. The Bison would kill the penalty and return to full strength, but still couldn’t find the net, as much as they tried. Phantoms would see off the Norton penalty successfully.
Gaël Lubwele picked up a Kneeing penalty (56.13), when he collided with Brad Bowering, who appeared to come off alot worse and he had to be helped off the ice and taken to the Phantoms locker room.
Bison would do well to see off the penalty and returned to full strength soon after.
Into the final two minutes of the game and Luc Johnson would pick up another penalty, this time a Holding call (59.15) & that was followed by Zack Milton picking up a Cross-Checking call (59.51).
At that break of play and with only a few seconds to play, the Phantoms gave a senior debut to a young lad, Joe Nolan, who replaced Jordan Marr between the pipes.
That bought an end to the game and at the final buzzer, the home side had earned themselves a very deserved win and 4 point weekend.
The Bison, will be really disappointed that they outshot the Phantoms on both evenings and only found the net once. But credit to Slava Koulikov, who has got himself a well drilled team there & still have a possible shot at winning the league, but my money’s on Leeds Knights, who have been the best team i’ve seen this season.
Liam Morris would pick up the Man of the Match for the Bison and deservedly so, whilst Martin Susters got the nod for the Phantoms. Personally, i thought Lukas Sladovsky should’ve got it, especially with 1+3 on the night.
Match Stats:
Phantoms Stats : Sladovsky 1+3, Susters 1+1, Johnson 1+0, Speirs 1+0, McEwan 0+2, Bowering 0+1, Norton 0+1.
Nets : J Marr (31/1)
Bison Stats : Morris 1+0, Milton 0+1.
Nets : A Mettam (30/4)
PiMs : Phantoms 15 Bison 10
SoG : Phantoms 30 Bison 31
Bison return to action next Saturday (4th March), when the MK Lightning visit the Bison Arena (Face Off – 6.30pm). It’s our only game of the weekend, so we must get try and get something out of it …
Good Seats are still available and can be purchased by clicking the following link: https://iceaccount.co.uk/basingstoke-bison?Reference=Bison-Website – Don’t miss out …..
