King Kubenko returns to reclaim his crown

Bison 5 Swindon Wildcats 2

26/10/11

What a difference one player can make. Savvy Slovak, Viktor Kubenko, a greater mega hero than even Buzz Lightyear, looked capable of propelling Bison to infinity and beyond with the sort of inspirational performance the Basingstoke crowd had been hoping he would produce on his return to the herd. However it wasn’t all plain sailing. The Wildcats moved into a 2 goal lead and had Bison shut out until the 33^rd minute. It really was a “game of two halves”.

Bison fell behind in the 16^th minute. Kurt Reynolds found himself caught in a 2 on 1 between Czech Republicans, Cesky and Pinc. If he had been as large as Fatty Foulke (a 20 stone football goalkeeper – yes really Google him if you don’t believe me), he might have stood a chance. Alas Kurt is nowhere near as wide as the famous Sheffield United colossus and a clever interchange between the bouncing Czechs resulted in Cesky finding the net. Jan Melichar, yet another Czech, picked up the second assist.

Bison needed to take control from the start of the second period, but calamity struck within 22 seconds of the restart. Hoog and Richardson set up James Knight (none of them Czechs) in front of goal. He deked and slotted home top shelf past Dean Skinns. 2-0.

With half the match gone, Bison didn’t look like they were capable of even buying a goal, this match following a home shut out against the Milton Keynes Lightning, which meant they had gone past 90 minutes on home ice without a goal. However, it looked like all it would take would be for one to go in and there could be more. And so it proved. The stage was set for Viktor Kubenko, the savvy Slovak, the Slovak machine, King Kubo, Robot Man or whatever you want to call him. On 33 minutes Kubenko, set up by Chinn and Bronnimann, hammered home from in front of goal. The crowd, who at the start of the game had given him a reception worthy of royalty, went beserk.

3 minutes later Bison levelled it at 2-2. Nicky Chinn’s shot rebounded to guess who? Kubenko smashed the puck into the Wildcats’ net. Sam Oakford took the second assist.

It didn’t take long at the start of the third for Bison to edge into the lead for the first time in the game. 21 seconds to be precise. Petran fed Kubenko who moved forward using his characteristic one handed stick handling technique and then slipped an inch perfect pass to Ollie Bronnimann. The man from Margate rifled the puck into the net for 3-2.

Less than a minute later Swindon thought they had tied it up at 3-3, but the referee had a contrary opinion. He adjudged the net to have come off its moorings before the puck crossed the line and the “goal” was chalked off. Instead of getting back on level terms, the Wildcats found themselves even further behind a minute later. 4-2 it was. The scorer at the back door was Liam Chong after some nice approach play by Craig Tribe and Jacob Heron.

4 minutes later Joe Miller found himself with a chance to make it 5-2, but as he bore down on goal and about to pull the trigger, he was taken down from behind and the opportunity was lost. An incredulous crowd were left wondering why no infraction was called and a penalty shot awarded. It seemed very clear from Block C, but not to the bespectacled referee, Dave Cloutman. Miller, obviously frustrated by this injustice, decided to exact vigilante revenge shortly afterwards, but alas ended up in the box for slashing. He must have been left wondering about the referee’s selective eyesight.

In the 49^th minutes the Bison crowd were elevated to a new level of nirvana. Assisted by released prisoner Miller and Nicky Chinn, the savvy Slovak, Viktor Kubenko, smashed in his hat-trick goal. It was just like a fairy story, only it wasn’t Snow White who was doing the scoring. The crowd exhibited their appreciation of the returning hero in the most vociferous fashion. The man had picked up from where he left off last season, a season in which he bagged no fewer than 48 goals. You can keep Buzz Lightyear.

With 2 minutes left on the clock there was a sudden set to between Petran and Cesky which mushroomed into an incident of the most unsavoury variety. Every single skater on the ice as well as the three officials were involved. They bunched together as if trying to keep warm. So close were they that Tom Mix (Google him as well) could have thrown a lasso around the jostling group. What went on is anyone’s guess – it was impossible to see. There didn’t appear to be any flying fists, but there was plenty of everything else as the players let their opinions be known to each other. On termination of the hostilities, no fewer than 8 players, 4 from each team, found themselves in the box. Maybe it should have been 5 each, but there simply wasn’t any bench space left. Cesky picked up a 2+2+5 and a game penalty for high sticking, slashing and  roughing – an impressive collection. Not many more offences he could have committed. Petran also attracted a game penalty. Highlight of the evening (yes even more entertaining than Kubo’s treble) was the 4 miscreants in the Bison box indulging in Mexican waves until spoken to rather sternly about their frivolous conduct by a disapproving Mr. Cloutman.

All in all a fantastic night for the Bison team and fans. Kubenko’s goals were not the only thing he brought to the team. His presence seemed to inspire the players and imbue them with a confidence that looked completely lacking in the shut out against Lightning. He received the man of the match award – merely a box of Budweiser when Champagne would have been more appropriate. A word, though, for Tony Redmond who played a rock solid game on the blue line …… and beyond, but maybe not to infinity.

Lightning edge it on night for netminders

Marie are you reading this?

Bison 0 Milton Keynes Lightning 1

22/10/11

Milton Keynes Lightning laid down their title marker with a gritty performance resulting in this narrow road win at Planet Ice last night. Championship winners 2 years ago, they finished in a disappointing mid table position last season, but they are now looking much more like a team capable of emulating that title success of 2009. And they can thank their young goaltender, Alex Mettam, who produced some fantastic saves and stood solid as a rock. His opposite number, Matt Colclough, can consider himself unlucky to record a 0.95 + save percentage and still end up on the losing side.

Lightning took the lead after 13 minutes with a short handed goal. With Kentish man Michael Wales, a player weighing 69 Kg, and Canadian Nick Poole, weighing a full 10 Kg heavier than his team mate, both in the box, Lightning had to defend a 5 on 3 for 39 seconds. This they did and after Wales had returned to the ice to see out the 5 on 4 powerplay things went horribly awry for Bison. A defensive slip let in “A” man Leigh Jameson and he 5-holed the unfortunate Matt Colclough who just wasn’t quick enough with his butterfly. It’s always disappointing to concede a short hander.

Bison thought they had equalised with only 3 seconds of the power play remaining. The puck found the net as the goal moved backwards, but the referee ruled that the net was off its moorings before the puck crossed the line and no goal it was. It was a somewhat surreal situation with the Bison players, unaware of the referee’s decision, continuing to celebrate and the scoreboard firmly stuck on “0”.

The second period saw no more goals, but there were plenty of chances at both ends. However, the goal tenders stood rock solid. Slovak cannon, Marcel Petran, keen to make amends for his defensive slip which led to the Lightning goal, showed his superb skating skills by slicing through the Lightning defense, but shot high. With only 6 seconds of the period remaining, Marcel became involved in an ugly exchange of contrary opinions with the abrasive Michael Wales, a well known agent provocateur, who had been niggling away at Petran for the whole game. The Slovak had made a great job of ignoring the MK man’s gamesmanship until then. Alas he did not possess the patience of Job and the situation eventually brewed up into a full blown unsavoury incident with pushing, shoving and verbals. No blows were exchanged, but the argy-bargy was enough to attract a 2 minutes penalty for each for “roughing”. Didn’t look very rough to me. One can only speculate on how Job would have coped with Mr. Wales.

Seven minutes into the third, Marek Dubec, playing his last game on home ice for the Bison, received a bizarre penalty for “boarding”, which looked like a legal mid ice check with no boards involved to me. However, the referee knew better. During the resultant power play, the crowd were treated to a superb cameo of defensive play by Dan Harris. Outnumbered 2 to 1 in the left hand channel he successfully blocked the way to goal for what seemed like half the evening. I hope there were some young aspiring defensemen in the crowd who saw this because it really was text book stuff. It was a perfect illustration that a blueliner doesn’t have to touch the puck to make a telling contribution. Dan made himself as large as possible with superb positioning, sometimes upright, sometimes down on one knee, sometimes with stick laid down on the ice as if to say “Only a saucer pass over my stick will do.” He didn’t rashly charge in with a reckless tackle and what he did worked superbly. They did not get the puck past him. Well done, Dan. 10 out of 10.

Halfway through the period Bison’s best chance fell to bandana wearing, Canadian colossus, Steve Moria. He received a pass from behind the goal line and seemed only to have to smash the puck into an empty net with Mettam leaving a huge gap between himself and the post. However Moria’s drilled shot was brilliantly saved by the young netman, who then completed a double save by stopping the shot smashed in from the rebound.

At the other end, Colclough, also enjoying a great game, did make an uncharacteristic but hideous error by batting the puck out wide straight to Adam Carr, whose shot back flashed across the face of the goal and missed the target to save Matt’s blushes.

Three minutes from time, Marek Dubec had a chance to mark his last game with a landmark equaliser. He raced clear, bore down on Mettam, but failed to find a way past the Lightning goaltender, who looked as impregnable as the Maginot Line, the Great Wall of China and Fatty Arbuckle all rolled into one.

The final period was marked by several incidents of fractious behaviour, following on from a number of similar differences of opinion in the second as well as the Petran/Wales encounter, but in all cases the conflagrations went no further than pushing and shoving. It had seemed almost a certainty that Chris Wiggins would get involved in another fight, but this didn’t happen.

Despite outshooting Lightning by 16-6 in the final period, Bison could not find a way through and were reduced to the risky business of pulling their goaltender with the clock ticking down. Hearts were in Bison mouths as Lightning missed an empty net chance, but Bison failed to capitalise on the 6 on 5 and the buzzer (such an awful sound when you’re losing) ended the night’s disappointment.

Tigers Trampled Underfoot by Bison Stampede

Bison 7 Telford Tigers 2

15/10/11

On a night when scenes of X-rated violence erupted on the ice, Bison earned themselves an easy victory over a young Telford team tipped by many to end the season bottom of the EPL pile. And a new Bison hero emerged, one Joe Miller, a man who has undoubted talent but whose career has been chequered to say the least. Playing for his third team in a year, “problem player” Miller has had a fantastic start to his Bison career with 5 goals in his first 6 games. Last night he added another goal as well as 2 assists to his tally and earned a Gordie Howe hat-trick (a goal, an assist and a fight) when he was involved in an unseemly disagreement with Tigers’ Josh Bruce (no relation to Robert the Bruce, although he is a Scotsman) towards the end of the third period – more about that later.

Last week Bison fans were treated to a spectacular hat-trick of another sort from Marcel Petran with his trio of slap shot goals. In the 17^th minute Petran opened the scoring for Bison as he hammered in yet another of his slap shots. Craig Tribe worked the puck around the back of the net and passed to Liam Chong who saw Petran lurking dangerously on the point. Chong’s inch perfect pass was smashed in by the Slovak Cannon past a startled Declan Ryan in the Tigers’ goal. Marcel’s trademark “jazz hands” were raised aloft in triumph.

Bison were unlucky to end the period with such a slender lead, after outshooting the Tigers by 17 to 8, but within 4 minutes of the second Craig Tribe had made it 2-0, a fairer reflection on the balance of play. He bulged the net, after a Chris Wiggins shot was saved. However, the Tigers reduced the arrears only a minute later with a back door score from Andy McKinney assisted by Janak and Bruce. Bison’s 2 goal advantage was restored a minute later when the normally stay at home D-man, Sam Oakford, emulated Petran with a vicious slap shot goal assisted by Miller. 3-1.

On 34 minutes the crowd were treated to a comedy goal. It was a true pantomime “it’s behind you” effort from Steve Moria. Nicky Chinn carried the puck behind the goal and in the split second that it took for goaltender Ryan to turn from left to right to follow Chinn’s progress, the Bison skipper had slid the puck behind him with a back handed pass to Moria, lurking at the back post. The Canadian Colossus dragged the puck back and rifled home with Ryan looking the other way. The hapless goaltender’s first inkling that his pipes had been penetrated must have been the roar of the crowd. Never take your eye off the puck. O.K. that’s much easier said than done!

The Bison goal scoring machine was now in full swing and it didn’t take long for the scoreboard to click on to 5-1. Ollie Bronnimann fed Daniel Volrab, a former NHL draft pick of the Dallas Stars, who skated forward at speed and in impressive style, cutting in from the left flank and sliding an inch perfect pass to Joe Miller. Goal!

A minute later the Bison crowd rose to its feet in expectation of bloodshed as Nicky Chinn and Callum Bowley confronted each other merely to exchange constructive comments on the last passage of play I am sure. However, the baying crowd was to be disappointed as the ugly confrontation advanced no further than pushing, shoving and expressing those contrary opinions before the officials stepped in and doled out a 2 minute punishment to each.

Halfway through the final period Bison scored twice to move the score on to 7-1. The first was scored by Liam Chong assisted by Miller and Chinn. Chong broke clear, deked and slotted home. Markek Dubec registered the second. Fed by fellow Slovak, Petran, the impressive former Buffalo Sabres draftee cut in from the right wing and rifled the puck past a shell shocked Ryan, who then suffered the ultimate ignominy of a goaltender by being pulled. Josh Nichols was his replacement. Most of the crowd were too busy celebrating the goal and hadn’t noticed the goaltending switch, but Ryan’s blushes were not spared by the announcer who delivered news of his embarrassing situation to the assembled over the tannoy.

With 5 minutes to go Bison enforcer, Chris Wiggins, left his mark on the game in typical style. In revenge for a nasty hit on Liam Chong earlier in the game, so some said, Wiggie went toe to toe with Tom Watkins, the Tigers head coach. The hapless Watkins had no option but to turtle under the Bison man’s ruthless bombardment, but this didn’t stop Wiggins from continuing to rain in blows until eventually persuaded to desist from further action by the referee. It was Wiggins’s third fight in four games. The one game he failed to drop his gloves during was the previous game, for which he was suspended.

The game ended with another goal and another fight. The second Tigers goal was scored by Jiri Hanzal, assisted by McKinney not Gretl, and an explosive and indeed malodorous altercation between Joe Miller, looking for the final piece in the jigsaw of his Gordie Howe hat-trick, and the aforementioned non relative of Robert the Bruce, Josh. Gloves went down, helmets came off and the two opponents circled around like vultures, rolling up their sleeves to emphasise intent. When they came together X-rated violence erupted with a flurry of telling punches delivered by both men. The blood lust of the Bison crowd rose to fever pitch. The contest was terminated by Bruce falling on his back and Miller standing over him in a menacing fashion, claiming victory. There was way too little match time remaining for the men to serve their appropriate punishments in the box.

Bison fall short despite Petran’s slapshot goal hat-trick

Bison 6 Slough Jets 7

8/10/11

Is there a more spectacular sight in hockey than a defenseman powering home an unstoppable slap shot from the point? The blue liner backlifts his stick high above his shoulders as the puck is slid into his path from the other side of the rink. The stick descends in a sweeping arc just as the puck arrives. The stick hits the ice just behind the puck, bends and instantly restraightens, lifting the puck off the ice and sending it arrowing at a speed exceeding 90 mph past the shoulder of the hapless goaltender who sees what is coming but can’t stop it. GOAL!

There are very few EPL blueliners capable of regularly and consistently executing this skill. Planet Ice was privileged to see two of them in action tonight as Bison took on the Slough Jets. The Jets’ Mindy Kieras, known as the lethal Lithuanian and a former Bison favourite, went head to head with Marcel Petran, the Slovak cannon. Petran won the contest with a hat-trick of slap shot goals while Kieras failed to score, but, although he won the battle, Petran’s team lost the war.

Bison will be disappointed that they threw away a 6-3 lead at the half way point, but, on a night where slick attacking play from both sides caused all sorts of problems for leaky defences, the home crowd (or at least some of them) will be thankful that they were witness to a pulsating end to end game and that Petran triple strike. This was certainly not a game for the connoisseur of the art of defensive hockey.

The Slovak cannon’s first goal put Bison ahead in the 7^th minute. A slap shot from the point. Assists went to Daniel Volrab and Sam Oakford. His second, making it 2-0 only 2 minutes later was a double. His first slap shot was bloced. The puck rebounded directly into Petran’s path. Jets’ goaltender, Greg Rockman, seemed to be saying “Bad luck, old chap. That one wasn’t hard enough - try another”. The second slapshot delivered the bouncing puck firmly into the net. Chinn and Chong picked up assists.

Shortly afterwards Bison goaltender Matt Colclough must have been thanking Jacques Plante, the first goaltender to wear a mask, as a Pliskauskas slap shot hit him right between the eyes. It doesn’t matter how you stop ‘em. However, Colclough’s defences were finally breached with Slough pulling it back to 2-2. Both goals came within a minute of each other close to the end of the first period, Connolly and Calder getting on the “scoresheet” (does this piece of paper really exist?). Calder’s goal finished a move involving the Greener brothers, Joe and Adam.

Within 3 minutes of the restart, Bison restored their lead with a soft goal from Nicky Chinn. With the goaltender committed one way, the puck trickled in at his opposite post. Oh dear! Had he not been helmeted we could have seen his red face. He also, therefore, had cause to thank Jacques Plant, albeit for a different reason.

2 minutes later Slough were level again with Canadian Adam Calder scoring on the power play with a slap shot from the point. However, Bison retook the lead only a minute later. Marek Dubec, no doubt fancying himself as a cricketer, brilliantly batted the puck out of the air, intercepting a defensive pass, took the puck wide of goal and then slipped it back to Steve Moria, who set up Jacob Heron in front of goal. A lovely move. 4-3.

Soon after, with Kieras taking a seat, another power play goal clicked the scoreboard on to 5-3. Blueliners Oakford and Petran combined with Daniel Volrab in a slick move from one end of the ice to the other, Volrab’s wrist shot beating Rockman, catcher side.

In the 30^th minute and with Galazzi in the box for cross checking, Bison cashed in again on the power play. Volrab and Moria set up Petran and the Slovak cannon completed his hat-trick with his third slap shot goal from the slot.  The puck was hammered in with such venom that only the net stopped it travelling all the way to Petran’s homeland in Slovakia. O.K. it might have been heading in the opposite direction - I haven't checked the compass. For the third time the trademark Petran “jazzy fingers” were raised high. You have to see them to know what I am talking about.

At 6-3 Bison were cruising and with only half the game over, they looked capable of running up a cricket score. However, games can turn and how this one did. Petran’s third was the end of Bison’s scoring, while the Jets rattled in 4 to win the game 7-6. The ever dangerous Darius Pliskauskas (Mindy Kieras wasn’t the only lethal Lithuanian on the ice) and the niggly Nicky Watt reduced the deficit to 6-5 by the end of the period. Tom Carlon slammed in an equaliser within a couple of minutes of the restart and with 10 minutes remaining, the deadly Canadian Adam Calder completed his hat-trick to make it 8 goals, not to mention 5 assists, in 5 games so far this season – you don’t have to be a Lithuanian to be lethal it would seem. Three minutes later Bison thought they had levelled it. The red light behind the goal illuminated for all to see, but the “goal” was disallowed, for what I know not, and, although there were some subsequent close shaves, the Basingstoke boys failed to find the net again.

Home went the Bison crowd with mixed feelings. A great game of hockey, but rather worrying that the team seems to be leaking goals at the moment – 7 at Bracknell on Sunday and another 7 here tonight. However, how often do you see a defenseman’s hat-trick in a game, let alone one as spectacular as Petran’s cannon blasts. Thanks Marcel.

Steeldogs bite but not hard enough

 Bison 3 Sheffield Steeldogs 2

1/10/11

A Sheffield team, much improved from last season, came to Planet Ice last night as table toppers and on the back of a perfect league record (OK it was only 2 wins out of 2). They left with their tails between their legs and their bark silenced. Strongarm tactics were the order of the day, although there were surprisingly few penalties thanks to the poor eyesight of the referee. Nevertheless the inevitable happened in the third period with Andre Payette and Chris Wiggins squaring up to each other. More about that unseemly altercation later.

It was Payette who opened the scoring in the 7^th minute. Taking a pass from Janis Ozolins he cut in from the right wing and slotted the puck past Bison netminder, Dean Skinns, after some clever stick handling, which proved that Payette is more than merely a knuckle dragging goon.

Despite outshooting the Steeldogs 18-10 in the first, Bison were unable to breach the Berlin wall known as Ben Bowns, who many regard as the best netman in the EPL. He would later be awarded the Steeldogs’ man of the match award with 45 saves and blocks from 48 shots fired at him.

The northern icemen kept Bison out for a further 14 minutes of the second period until Canadian colossus, Steve Moria, finally moved the Bison scoreboard onto “1”. A pass from Nicky Chinn found Moria in front of goal and he drove a net bulging shot past a startled Bowns. A further assist went to Ollie Bronnimann, the baby faced assassin. The point he received was his hundredth for Bison – well done Ollie a great achievement.

One got the impression that once Bison had got off the mark more goals would follow and indeed this was the case with goal scoring blue liner, Marcel Petran, putting Bison into a 2-1 lead within 3 minutes of the Moria goal. Petran, who had already tested Bowns with a number of slapshots finally got one through. Set up by Daniel Volrab, the left handed Slovak fired in a low shot from the point. The puck hammered against Bowns’s leg pad with a distinctive “thud” sound. Alas for the hapless goalie, the puck squeezed in through the 5 hole and over the line. Petran exhibited his pleasure by performing a sort of disco dance centre ice, which proved almost as entertaining as the goal itself. Perhaps Marcel’s next goal will be followed by a tribute to his namesake Marcel Marceau. On second thoughts I don’t think a mime with a flower sticking out of the top of his helmet would be appropriate.

Bison held the lead for less than a minute. Ozolins hammered home at the back post assisted by Payette and Wood. 2-2 it was. Credit must be given to Sheffield for leaving the ice at the end of the second on level terms after being outshot by 36 to 20 in the first two periods.

A nasty incident occurred only a couple of minutes into the third. Bison’s Marek Dubec went down on the ice after being slashed on the wrist. A similar incident last season resulted in a broken wrist for flame haired Jock, Tony Redmond, and the Bison crowd feared the worst. However, after a few minutes Dubec was able to return to the ice much to the relief of the Bison faithful. The partially sighted referee gave no penalty for the slash. Strange that.

Chris Wiggins was posing some questions of the Steeldogs’ defense with some impressive forays, one of which culminated in an ugly incident of push and shove behind the Sheffield net – perhaps a prelude to the  fisticuffs with Payette slightly later.

Bison finally took the lead for the first time in the match with 6 minutes of the third gone. Welsh Wizard, Joe Miller, who has already made a big impression with 3 goals in his first 2 games for Bison, showed what a good skater and stick handler he is by bamboozling the Steeldogs’ defense and goaltender and squeezing the puck home for 3-2. Volrab picked up his second assist of the night.

It was amazing that the game had reached as late the 53^rd minute mark before it all kicked off. It would be incorrect to call the Steeldogs’ Canadian enforcer, Andy Payette, just a goon, but it cannot be denied that the man has a reputation. He has been involved in numerous fights throughout his career (just take in a few on Youtube) and been involved in other unsavoury incidents in his time in British hockey. Outside of Sheffield, he is just about as popular as Colonel Gadhafi. During his time in Britain he has run up a tally of over 1,500 minutes in penalties (do you know there are less than that number of minutes in ONE DAY!). His opponent was giant Bison enforcer, Chris Wiggins, also way too good a player to be labelled “just a goon”. Wiggie, however, does not like being messed with and Payette should have known better. He didn’t. He “roughed” the Bison man. Suddenly the blood lust of the Bison rose as they jumped up from their seats and exhorted Wiggie to inflict serious injury on the Canadian bogey man. The two enforcers preferred to hammer away at each other, rather than politely exchange views on each other’s conduct. Wiggins then went down on one knee to the ice and was prevented from getting up by Payette as the officials stepped in. Wiggins tried desperately to continue the fight, even with the referee in between (do they get danger money?), but it looked like Payette had had enough. Off went the miscreants to the box where it looked afterwards that they were indeed “politely exchanging views on each other’s conduct”, but of course we couldn’t hear the ensuing conversation from the other side of the rink. One suspects that further trouble is in the pipeline when the two teams meet again.