Image (C) Jo Loat
By Simon Church
The weekend starts early for your GalxC Cooling Services Basingstoke Bison, a Friday home game against Milton Keynes Lightning precedes a Saturday road trip west along the M4 to play Bristol Pitbulls.
On Friday night we welcome MKL and their quality laden roster to the Silverdome for a National League fixture, the game has a 8.00pm face off.
Lightning currently occupy 3rd spot in the standings, just a point behind 2nd placed Peterborough Phantoms and a further 3 points adrift of leaders Leeds Knights.
Since the two teams last met in MK at the start of October, our visitors have further strengthened their offensive options by signing young GB forward Jack Hopkins, on a 2-way contract from EIHL side the Nottingham Panthers, along with the much awaited arrival of Latvian forward Deivids Sarkanis.
Leading the scoring for MK is Player/Coach Tim Wallace on 32 points (12+20), followed by Liam Stewart on 30 points (21+9).
Saturday sees the Bison on the road as they head down the M4 to take on the Bristol Pitbulls in their Cribbs Causeway rink, face off on Saturday night is 7.00pm.
Bristol recently moved up to 8th place, with 12 points courtesy of 3 regulation wins, 2 OT wins and 2 OT losses.
Leading the Pitbulls scoring is their Captain Owen Sobchak on 25 points (15+10), followed by Alex Roberts with 18 points (7+11) and Caly Robertson on 17 (7+10).
Head Coach Jamie Elson has overseen a number of changes to their roster in the last few weeks, outgoing has been Tommy Ralph, Dan Bradley and the aforementioned Roberts. While young British forward Morgan Clarke-Pizzo has been signed on a two-way deal with the Guildford Flames of the Viaplay Elite League.
Last weekend saw a notable upshift in performance from the Bison, with a narrow, fiercely fought home loss to Sheffield Steeldogs, followed by a heartbreaking away defeat, on penalties, to Telford Tigers.
Head Coach Ashley Tait will have been pleased with the players efforts in both games, training this week will have focused on continuing the improvement shown in those games.
Fans of the Herd, as always you have a part to play in getting behind the team, your vocal support is needed starting on Friday at 8.00pm.
Loud, Louder, Loudest.
Tickets for Friday nights Planet Ice National League (Face off 8pm) are available to purchase from the following link: https://iceaccount.co.uk/basingstoke-bison?Reference=Bison-Website
