Image (C) Jo Loat
FINAL SCORE : SEAHAWKS 3 BISON 6 (1-2, 1-1, 1-3)
By Nigel Simmonds
Refs : Mr Hamilton & Mr Roger
Lino’s : Mr Smith & Miss Stanley
After Saturday evenings hard fought, but muchly deserved win against Telford, the second victory against the Tigers in 6 days, your GalxC Cooling Services sponsored Basingstoke Bison, made the trip to East Yorkshire, to take on the Hull Seahawks. A team that currently sits in last place in the table.
The Bison were again missing Paul Petts, Oli Hemmings-Maher, Roman Cathcart & Alex Sampford. They would be joined by Neil Liddiard & Aidan Doughty, who was involved in a nasty looking incident on Saturday evening. Obviously, we all hope that he makes a full & speedy recovery ASAP.
Jordan McLaughlin & Alex Mettam would both get the nod, to start in between the pipes.
After a 10 minute delay to face off, due to the ice needing some TLC, the teams go off to a fast and furious start to the game.
The home side would take an early lead, when their star import Andrej Themar (Salem, Svec) would score, as he batted the puck out of the air and past Alex Mettam in the Bison net (3.57).
A couple of minutes later, the visiting Bison, would pick up the first penalty of the evening, as Brendan Baird was called for Hooking. Penalty timed at 7.15.
The Bison PK unit would come out and a minute into the penalty, Gaël Lubwele sent fellow import Marcel Balaz, up ice all alone. Balaz skated in and finished neatly, tying the scores, with a short-handed goal (8.26).
The Bison would successfully see off the remaining time on the Baird penalty and returned to full strength.
Minutes later, the Bison’s ever impressing Canadian hot-shot Gaël Lubwele (Balaz), sniped an unstoppable wrister past McLaughlin, to give the visitors a deserved lead. They were playing some good hockey.
Almost straight away, Brendan Baird would pick up another penalty, this time a Tripping call (11.20). This gave the home side, a great chance to get back into the game straight away, but the Bison penalty killers (& Mettam) would stand firm and kill the penalty.
Hull would step up the tempo and create more attacks on the Bison net, but Mettam and his rear guard, would repel every surge forward by the home team and at the first interval break, the Bison would head to the locker room, with a slender one goal lead. The shots on goal were announced as a lowly 8 shots on McLaughlin, whilst Mettam faced a whopping 20 shots.
Into the second period and it would be the Seahawks that would tie up the scoreline early on, when Hull’s Czech import Emil Svec (Themar, Salem) netting a nice goal at the back post. It was a neat finish, after a great feed from Themar (23.39).
Into the second half of the game now and that man Gaël Lubwele, would add his second (& Bison’s 3rd) on the night. Zack Milton & Liam Morris both assisting the goal, timed at 32.45.
It looked like Lubwele was enjoying himself out there. Covering most of the ice and throwing in the odd hit against the boards, every now and then, which has really endeared him to the Bison faithful, over the weeks
That was all the action for the second period and as the buzzer sounded, both teams skated off the ice, with the Bison still holding a narrow lead. It would be a big third period coming up…
The 3rd period started and it really was a case of who wanted it more, that would take the ever important two points, that are much need by both teams right now.
A couple of minutes in and Lubwele would score an absolute beauty of a goal, completing a straight hat-trick, when scored with a pinpoint twisted wrist shot, that flew past McLaughlin, giving him no chance (43.07). This gave the 8 brave travelling Bison fans, that managed the long old trip to ‘Ull, something to cheer about…
A few seconds later and Bison’s Josh Kelly would be given a Tripping call, timed at 43.36, giving the Seahawks top PP line to come out and set about reducing the deficit. A minute after Bison had increased their lead, the Seahawks scored, indicating their weren’t ready to give up just yet. Hull’s Player/Coach Matty Davies getting a tip on a Declan Balmer shot from the point. Andrej Themar also assisting the powerplay goal (44.07).
Into the final 10 minutes of the game now and Hull’s Matty Davies would be involved again…. but this time, he would be taking a trip to the penalty box, as he picked up a Tripping call (52.04).
From the resulting powerplay, Bison Captain George Norcliffe (King, Balaz), extended the Bison’s two goal lead again, as he netted with aplomb, beating the Hull Netminder again, timed at 54.00.
Into the final 2 minutes of the game and there was still time for some action. A few more seconds ran down. At the next whistle to stop play, the Hull Seahawks used their ‘Time Out’ and decided to leave McLaughlin on the bench, in favour of the extra attacker, as they went all out to reduce the scoreline.
Sadly for the Seahawks, the Bison had their own script of how things would go and Hallam Wilson would find himself with the puck on his stick and he slid the puck up the ice and into the unguarded empty net, with Gaël Lubwele & Brendan Baird picking up assists on the goal (59.11).
Liam Morris would finish the game in the sinbin, as he picked up a Delay of Game penalty, timed at 59.37.
The final buzzer sounded and the Bison had completed a 4 point weekend.. something they havn’t done for a while and with other scores going in their favour, they climbed the table into 7th position
The beers were given to Andrej Themar for the home side, whilst Gaël Lubwele was awarded them for the visitors. It was quoted as “a masterclass by Lubwele”, on Hull’s Twitter page. It was also his 2nd MoM of the weekend and he for sure, was most certainly the pick of all Bison players over the two games. Congratulations Gaël !!
Match Stats:
Seahawks Stats : Themar 1+2, Svec 1+1, Davies 1+0, Salem 0+2, Balmer 0+1
Nets : McLaughlin (39/5) Empty Net (1/1)
Bison Stats : Lubwele 3+2, Balaz 1+2, Norcliffe 1+0, Wilson 1+0, Milton 0+2, Baird 0+1, King 0+1, Mitchell 0+1, Morris 0+1.
Nets : Mettam (51/3)
PiMs : Seahawks 2 Bison 8
SoG : Seahawks 51 Bison 39
MoM Seahawks : Andrej Themar
MoM Bison : Gaël Lubwele
Bison return to action this coming Saturday (21st), as the Raiders IHC visit the Bison Arena (Face Off – 6.30pm) in the first game of a back to back fixture weekend, against the Essex based side.
Good0 Seats are still available to purchase from the following link: https://iceaccount.co.uk/basingstoke-bison?Reference=Bison-Website
