This weekends action sees the GalxC Cooling Services Basingstoke Bison begin their National League campaign, firstly with a home game against Peterborough Phantoms, face off is the usual 6.30pm, and will be followed by a Sunday road trip to Romford to take on Raiders IHC, this game has a 5.15pm face off.
Both games will count towards a National Cup competition, this will be similar to the one held in 2019/20, where the first meetings of teams will count towards cup points.
Saturday will see the home debut of our second import Filip Martinec, face off is the usual 6.30pm.
The game will see a 2nd meeting between the teams this season, the first was in the Autumn Cup and resulted in a win for the Bison.
Phantoms made a slow start to the 2021/22 season, however they’ve picked up the pace in recent weeks, notably last weekend, which saw them notch up a thrilling overtime win against the Steeldogs on home ice, before travelling north to take on the previously unbeaten Leeds Knights. Despite conceding twice inside the opening 10 minutes, Phantoms fought back to win 5-4 and inflict the Knights’ first Autumn Cup defeat.
Long serving Ales Padelek, bagged 4+1 over the two games to show he’s still very much the key to the Phantoms performing at their best.
On Sunday the Bison travel to the Sapphire Ice & Leisure centre in Romford for a 4th meeting this season with Raiders IHC. The Herd were successful in both pre-season matches, while the Raiders finally claimed victory in Basingstoke with a thrilling overtime win, the winning goal coming at 64.40, from none other than Aaron Connolly.
Although Raiders have only won twice this season, apart from a heavy defeat in Leeds, they’ve been in close contention in almost every other game. They have the firepower to be a threat to any team in this league, with the likes of Erik Piatak, Jake Sylvester, Brandon Ayliffe adding to the scoring prowess of Connolly.
If coach Sean Easton can tighten their defence, to date they’re conceding an average of 4.75 goals per game, Raiders will be certainly challenging in all competitions.
Yet again we have two tough opponents for the Bison to overcome, no doubt Ash, Tosh and the team will have been working hard in training, as they look to put last weekends disappointments behind them, and start the league season on a positive note.
