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.