Double Header with the League Champions

By Simon Church

It’s a two game, one opponent weekend for your GalxC Cooling Services Basingstoke Bison, when we shall be playing the newly-crowned National League Champions and potential Play Off quarter final opponents the Leeds Knights, who clinched the league title last Sunday by winning in Telford, while nearest challengers MKL lost to Bees IHC.

We start by welcoming Leeds to the Silverdome Arena on Saturday night, face off is 6.30pm, before the return game in Yorkshire on Sunday at the Knights’ Elland Road rink, aka the Castle, where the face off time is 5.15pm.

Leeds have been the standout team throughout the season. Coach Ryan Aldridge has built a roster with a fine mix of quality, experience and youthful potential, as illustrated below.

To date they have won 43 out of their 52 games, scoring 286 goals along the way, with 5 of the 9 losses coming in overtime.

Three of their players have passed the 100 point stage, captain Kieran Brown leads the way on 113 (53+60), closely followed by Cole Shudra on 105 (46+59) and Matt Haywood on 103 (38+65), with all 3 averaging over 2 points per game.

Naturally this trio of high-scoring forwards rightly take most of the plaudits, however the standout player for me has been netminder Sam Gospel, who has a 92.1% save rate from 52 games, including 3 shutouts. Frequently, Gospel has been the difference between Leeds winning and losing.

As for the Bison, last weekend’s pair of victories, rounded off by Alex Sampford’s emotional farewell performance on Sunday night, confirmed our playoff spot with 4 games left to play, it just remains to see if we finish 7th or 8th.

Fans of the Herd, only 2 more home league games for you to play your part in backing the boys.  As always it’s……………..…Loud, Louder, Loudest.

Tickets for Saturdays Planet Ice National League fixture versus the Knights are available to purchase from the following link: https://iceaccount.co.uk/basingstoke-bison?Reference=Bison-Website

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