Bison 4 Sheffield Steeldogs 5
10/12/11
We were expecting a physical game
and that’s what we got. André Payette and the Steeldogs rode into town for an
ill tempered match, which contained almost as much violence as the gunfight at
the OK Coral. Tempers would flare, fists would fly and the crowd would bay for
blood.
Player/coach Payette clearly had
a game plan. Target Chris Wiggins, Viktor Kubenko and Joe Miller and get them
off the ice. Before the game had even started he began his provocation by
mouthing off to the Bison bench. On the ice waiting for the first face off he
was clearly seen tapping Joe Miller with his stick, but Joe did not rise to the
obvious bait. Payette was looking for an opportunity to make Chris Wiggins explode
and got it in the 5th minute. He slashed the Bison enforcer and,
when Wiggins confronted him, in steamed Steve Duncombe (so obviously pre-arranged
by Payette) to slug it out with Wiggie. They each received a 2 + 2 roughing and
a further 10 misconduct (with Wiggins another 2 cross checking), while the
cynical Payette escaped with a 2 minute slashing penalty. A clever ploy. No 1
objective achieved with Wiggie off the ice. Worse for Bison was that Wiggins
injured his shoulder in the malodourous fracas and took very little part in the
remainder of the game.
Next Kubenko. Driven to the brink
of tolerance that even Job would have had trouble coping with (O-level RE),
King Kubo finally squared up to Ashley Calvert after a cynical cross check. 2 +
2 + 2 for each was the referee’s verdict.
Play eventually restarted and
within a minute yet another unsavoury embroilment was witnessed. The crowd were
shocked to see the normally placid Ollie Bronnimann dropping the gloves,
removing his helmet and getting stuck into Lloyd Gibson. The affray was not
preceded by an infraction and so the provocation must have been solely of a
verbal variety. 2 + 2 + a 10 misconduct for each.
Payette must have been astonished
at how well his master plan was coming together. The penalty boxes were filling
up, especially that of the Steeldogs where there was standing room only. The
genial Brummie in the 33 Kieras shirt in Block C began to worry that they would
soon run out of players and that volunteers from the crowd would be invited
down onto the ice to play, but fortunately this was not required.
Having outshot the Steeldogs by
16-7 in the first, Bison took a deserved lead in the 24th minute. Miller
fed Sam Oakford, whose shot was blocked by Bowns. Canadian colossus, Steve
Moria, swept in the rebound. A minute later it was 2-0. Chinn to Moria to
Kubenko. The savvy Slovak’s shot sneaked under Bowns’s pad and dribbled across
the line. On came the red light and all looked rosy in the Bison garden.
However, the Steeldogs powered back with 3 unanswered goals to take a 3-2 lead by
the end of the period. First Stuart Brittle (one of the four brothers Brittle) scored
from Calvert and Morgan. Then Brittle scored again with a slap shot assisted
again by Morgan. Next it was Calvert’s turn assisted by Brittle and Morgan.
Brittle’s shot was blocked by Colclough, who seemed not to know where the puck
was as he made no attempt to freeze it inside the crease. Calvert was on hand
to sweep it past him into the net. All credit to D-man Ben Morgan. He had notched
up assists for all 3 goals and this was after looking very pasty in the first
interval. Maybe he’d eaten too many Pukka pies. Payette’s shouted instruction
to him in front of Block B was “Make yourself throw up. You’ll feel much
better”. And so it proved. Fortunately the crowd was spared the unsavoury
spectacle.
Things went from bad to worse for
Bison in the third. Within 7 minutes the Steeldogs had opened up a 5-2 lead.
First Payette and Wood set up Latvian Edgars Bebris to squeeze a shot under
Colclough. Then Bebris broke clear and bore down on the Bison goal. Colclough
came out to narrow the angle, but alas when the Latvian delivered a cross goal
pass instead of shooting, there was bogey man Payette with an open goal, as
wide as the mouth of a wide mouthed frog (go on Youtube it), to shoot into.
The Steeldogs looked out of
sight, but with 6 minutes remaining Bison pulled one back on the power play with
Pavel Gomeniuk in the box for hooking. Bouncing Czech, Daniel Volrab, passed to
Slovak cannon, Marcel Petran in the slot. Marcel killed the puck and then
raised his stick high. Bowns knew what was coming, but stopping it was another
matter entirely. With the puck screaming towards him at a speed of 90 m.p.h.
plus, he had no chance of reacting - he just had to make himself as large as
possible. He stood as stationary as Lot’s wife after she had turned to a pillar
of salt (O-level RE again), as the puck left the ice and rocketed over his left
shoulder and into the net.
The Steeldogs once again turned
up the physical side of their game. The referee failed to call a number of
obvious infractions. When he ignored Petran being thrown to the ice with what
looked like a judo throw, the frustration of the man in the Charlestown Chiefs
shirt in Block C finally bubbled over. “Are you blind, ref?” he enquired. Those
around him initially thought that he had a genuine concern for the referee’s
state of optical health. However, his follow up comment of “Bring on Ray
Charles. He could do a better job” left them in no doubt that he didn’t know
what he was talking about. Not only was the aforementioned Mr Charles not in
the building, but he is not even in the land of the living thus precluding the
possibility of him taking the ice to replace Mr. Thompson.
With only 50 seconds remaining
Bison made it a one goal game. Petran’s slap shot was blocked and Joe Miller
bundled in the loose puck. Could Bison bag another in the dying seconds? Well
they were going to die trying. To the bench went Matt Colclough faster than
Usain Bolt on speed to enable a 6 on 5, but the Steeldogs held out and the
final buzzer sounded as Petran hammered a desperate and wayward slap shot from
long range.
Sounds like a typical v Steeldogs game. The way they play is disgraceful but it would appear to be catching on around the league... Slough being almost as guilty. It's a great shame and I hope this isn't the way the EPL is going permanently.
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