Jets Crash at Planet Ice

Bison 5 Slough Jets 4 (shoot out)

29/1/12

A dramatic shoot out victory at the end of an entertaining game secured a 4 point weekend for Bison. On Saturday night they romped to a 5-1 road win against the Milton Keynes Lightning. Last night the game against the high flying Slough Jets was closer and the margin much narrower, but by the end of the evening there were 2 more points for Bison to stuff into the sack and that was all that mattered.

The 1^st period ended honours even. The Jets had taken the lead with a power play goal on 7 minutes. With Bison reduced to 4 for an icing infringement and Nicky Chinn banged up, the Jets took full advantage. Lethal Lithuanian, Darius Pliskauskas collected a poorly directed pass from Doug Sheppard in the neutral zone, turned towards goal, skated forward, slicing through the Bison defense, deked and beat Stephen Wall with a top shelf wrist shot. It was a truly spectacular goal – a blur of superb footwork and dazzling stick handling. When Darius can no longer play hockey, he may well wish to pursue a new career as a conjurer or tap dancer or, better still, a tap dancing conjurer.

Bison drew level with a power play goal of their own on 17 minutes. With Ryan Watt behind bars, Sam Oakford sent in an off target slap shot from the point and the puck was bundled in. The goal was initially credited to Liam Chong. “I thought it was Miller who scored,” confidently declared the genial Brummie in the Kieras shirt and he was absolutely right. His eyes rarely deceive him. The score was later reassigned to Miller with assists to Volrab and Oakford.

With 2 minutes of the 1^st period remaining Nicky Chinn had his collar felt by the referee, Mr Szuchs. It was to be the Bison skipper’s third 2 minute stretch of the period and it seemed that he was spending more time in incarceration than Ronnie Biggs had spent in Wandsworth Prison. The Howling Man on the end of Row E let his views be known in his usual manner. Such was the swell of objection from the Bison blocks that it is doubtful whether Mr. Szuchs became aware of the Howling Man’s considered opinion.

The Jets retook the lead a minute into the 2^nd period. Ryan Watt found himself in on Wall and 5-holed the hapless netman with a powerful wrist shot from close in. However, it took Bison only 3 minutes to level it up at 2-2 with their second power play goal of the night, Pliskauskas having been sent to the slammer for a cross check. This one was an unassisted goal and had a touch of slapstick comedy about it. Bouncing Czech, Daniel Volrab’s shot was deflected high into the air. Gregg Rockman, in the Slough goal seemed not to know where it had gone - to infinity and beyond he might have thought. But it hadn’t. Down it came, obeying Sir Isaac Newtons’s theory of gravity (just like a falling apple really), and ended up in the net via Rockman’s back. How embarrassing for the poor fellow.

Into the 3rd period and Pliskauskas bagged his second of the game with a wonderful goal to restore the Jets’ lead on 27 minutes. A 2 on 1 lightning break saw Nicky Watt feed the goal a game Lithuanian at the back door. He hammered an unstoppable shot high into the net between Wall and post. Bison came back to level the scores for the third time in the match with a spectacular goal of their own. Savvy Slovak, Viktor Kubenko, carried the puck around the back of the goal with his characteristic one handed stick handling technique, emerged and skated to the boards close to the blue line still with the puck. As he looked for a play he became aware of a rapid movement in his peripheral vision. Was it the 6.30 express to Waterloo? No. It was flame haired Jock, Tony Redmond, hammering forward over the blue line. Kubo delivered a cross ice pass with the accuracy of an Agincourt archer’s arrow and Tosh rifled in an unstoppable one timer, top shelf. Nicky Chinn picked up the second assist.

Into the 3^rd period they went with Bison trying hard to get their noses in front for the first time in the game. However, it was the Jets who retook the lead once again, this time with Ryan Watt’s second. Always a favourite villain at Planet Ice, he showed he is more than just an agitator with an admirable goal. He foxed both defenseman and goaltender with some dazzling stick handling and sent a vicious wrist shot high into the net for 3-4.

With the clock ticking down and Bison beginning to have the look of defeat to the “gloom and doom” merchants in the crowd, such pessimism was shown to be both preposterous and outrageous. In stepped Slovak Cannon, Marcel Petran. In the previous Bison v Jets game he had hammered in a truly spectacular hat-trick of slap shots. He was about to fire in another such goal. The explosive blueliner killed a pass from Canadian Colossus, Steve Moria, then raised his stick high in a massive backlift. The stick then came sweeping down in a big arc, hitting the ice just behind the puck. The stick instantly bent and restraightened (O.K. I couldn’t actually see that from Row F) and propelled the puck like an exocet missile high into the Slough net past a hapless Rockman, who saw what was coming but couldn’t do anything about it. Up went the jazz hands.

There was no more scoring in regulation time, but with 6 seconds remaining, Dan Davies spooned the puck over the glass and attracted a 2 minute delay of game penalty, which meant that the Jets would have to play nearly 2 minutes of the ensuing overtime a man short. They survived the 4 on 3 and indeed nearly won the game shortly after Davies’ liberation with a 3 on 1 breakaway, the end shot from Pliskauskas hitting the post.

And so into a shootout. Ollie Bronnimann was up first for Bison and scored top shelf. Dan Davies restored equilibrium with a low shot. Steve Moria then beat Rockman with another top shelfer. The deadly Pliskauskas was the Jets’ second shooter. He failed to find the net with Wall producing a good save. Joe Miller then fired wide, leaving Ryan Watt needing to score to keep the Jets’ chances alive. He skated forward at breakneck speed, but got too close to Wall, who shot out his stick like a frog with a long sticky tongue going for a fly and poke checked the puck to safety.

Rejoicing of the most vociferous kind burst forth from the ecstatic Bison crowd, who threatened to take the roof off the building. After some bad home ice defeats in recent weeks to contrast with their current run of 7 road wins on the trot, it was good for the Bison faithful to witness their team coming out on top in a pulsating game. Ryan Watt and Kurt Reynolds picked up Man of the Match awards.

Hollyhead the Hero in Planet Ice Shutout

Bison 0 Milton Keynes Lightning 2

22/1/12

A second successive shutout on home ice and indeed a second successive home ice shut out against Milton Keynes Lightning (they won 1-0 at Planet Ice on their last visit) condemned Bison to another home defeat at the hands of their title hopeful opponents. 6 successive periods of play at home without a solitary goal contrasts massively against the current Bison run of 6 successive road wins and characterises their up and down form. Following on from the rip snorting, thigh slapping, whip cracking victory against a lively Swindon Wildcats side the night before, Bison fans were hoping for a 4 point weekend. Well why not? After all the men from MK were coming to Planet Ice on a run of 3 successive losses and a Bison victory was well within the realms of possibility.

Notwithstanding that the excellent Barry Hollyhead had another solid game in front of the Lightning pipes, you have to ask the question do Bison need shooting practice? Over 50 shots were fired in on Mr. Hollyhead. He made some good saves, but the vast majority of the efforts were straight at him, enabling him to kill the play by engulfing the puck like an amoeba ingesting food. You have to find one of the 5 holes around a goaltender or shoot at him so hard that he has to give up a rebound to make his life difficult as the Manchester Phoenix shooters had done so successfully last week against Bison.

The first period ended goalless, at least in hockey terms. The Block C Gooner in the Pittsburg Penguins shirt did have cause for celebration as Arsenal equalised against Manchester United. Following the score on his iPhone he let his opinion be known with a shout of “Come on Arsenal” when all was quiet around him. Heaven knows how he coped with the tension of his football team and both his hockey teams all playing at the same time. It would enough to drive most people to a nervous breakdown, but he is admirably made of stern stuff.

Back to the hockey. There may have been no goals, but there were a number of controversial decisions made by Mr. Thompson, the referee, which had the crowd expressing their disapproval (in the politest possible way of course), particularly the Howling Man at the end of Row E who made his views be known in his usual vociferous style on several occasions. The most bizarre penalty award was a tripping call on Slovak Cannon, Marcel Petran. He slid to the ice and poked the puck away from a marauding Lightning forward who then promptly fell over the D-man’s outstretched arm. Ignoring the fact that he had legitimately played the puck, Mr. Thompson’s considered opinion was 2 minutes in the slammer for Marcel.

Before the period ended the Gooner in the Penguins shirt exclaimed “Bollocks”, again during a quiet moment, thus indicating that United had taken the lead against Arsenal.

Within a minute of the restart MK took the lead with a slap shot goal from Leigh Jameson. Nick Poole and Ross Green picked up the assists. On 31 minutes Petran was sent “down the steps” again, this time for a 10 minute stretch for misconduct, although exactly what offense he committed I did not see. The period ended with Bison still looking for a goal.

During the interval the man in the Charlestown Chiefs shirt expressed his opinion to the genial Brummie in the Kieras shirt that Hollyhead was going to achieve a shut out, hoping that he was tempting fate and that, as he had made this prediction, Bison would ruin it by penetrating the Hollyhead pipes. Alas the Chiefs man was right for a change. Not one of the 17 shots fired in on the MK goal in the period found the net.

During the period Lightning made a clumsy line change and could have been called for too many men on the ice, but the officials didn’t spot it. The bespectacled youth in Block C did, however, but must have been suffering from double vision as he yelled, “there must be 30 of them on the ice”.

With just under a minute to go, player/coach Steve Moria beckoned and Bison goalie Matt Colclough raced from his crease as if pursued by a man waving a tax demand. Over the wall came Nicky Chinn to make it a 6 on 5. Alas the tactic backfired, as it sometimes does, and Ross Green scored one of the luckiest empty net goals you are ever likely to see. He hammered the puck into the boards. It deflected off at just the right angle to slide slowly (and agonisingly for the Bison faithful) into the unguarded goal for 2-0.

And so ended another disappointing night for the Bison fans. They left the arena with heavy hearts. The Gooner’s football team and British hockey team had both lost, but at least the Penguins went on to record an overtime win. He together with the Brummie, the youth, the Chiefs man and the Howling Man will all be back next week for the visit of the Slough Jets, rest assured.

Sticks splinter like matchwood as Bison blunt the Wildcats’ claws

Swindon Wildcats 3 Bison 5

21/1/12

I lost count of the number of broken sticks in this game – 7 or 8 maybe. Hockey stick manufacturers must have been rubbing their hands with glee. However, let’s not allow this unusual occurrence to deflect from matters more important, namely an impressive Bison outfit recording their 6^th straight road win to consolidate their league position. Playing their part in an exciting game, the Wildcats must have been disappointed to come up against Bison netman Stephen Wall, who enjoyed his best game for Bison and deservedly skated off with the Bison Man of the Match award. In 60 minutes of play the Brick Wall faced 41 shots and allowed only 3 goals, ending the night with a save percentage just shy of 0.93. He was the difference. However, Bison had to do a Lazarus, returning from the dead after falling 3-1 behind at the half way mark. They did so in impressive style with 4 unanswered goals in the next 30 minutes of play.

Bison took the lead on 10 minutes. Assisted by Kurt Reynolds, Bison enforcer, Chris Wiggins, forced the puck just over the goal line before it was swept back out. Alas for the Wildcats this clearing action was to no avail and the goal was given. The Bison lead lasted for only a minute. Jonas Hoog found himself in front of the Bison net, deked and scored low. Nell and Aldridge picked up assists. 3 minutes later Swindon scored again through Sam Bullas. Bison had managed to kill a penalty (Petran for tripping), but just as the miscreant was leaving his place of incarceration, the ear stud wearing Bullas (OK I couldn’t actually see the stud) scored. His first shot was saved by Wall, but he managed to poke in the rebound for a 2-1 lead.

4 minutes into the 2^nd period, Jarolslav Cesky, half of the Wildcats “Bouncing Czechs” topline partnership, was unceremoniously hauled to the ice when in on goal. The Wildcats were awarded a penalty shot. Cesky’s subsequent clever deke and shot didn’t fool Wall. Only a minute later Cesky found himself in on Wall again, but, as before, the Bison netman snuffed out the Czech’s effort. Cesky eventually got the better of Wall with Swindon’s 3^rd goal on 30 minutes. The puck appeared to deflect off the unlucky Wall’s catcher and in under the bar. Michal Pinc, the other half of the “Bouncing Czechs” duo got the assist.

Bison came straight back with their 2nd goal a couple of minutes later. In the previous Wildcats v Bison game the Slovak Cannon, Marcel Petran, had scored a most unusual goal for a D-man. Emerging form the penalty box with the Wildcats committed forward, he bore down on goal, deked and scored just like a forward. This time it was a more typical Petran goal – a TNT powered slap shot from the point, squeezing in through Deans Skinns, who was injured in the process. Moria and Kubenko got the assists.

On 35 minutes Cesky and Wall resumed their personal duel at the other end. Cesky decided to try something new by twirling through 360° like Jane Torvil in front of the Bison goalie. Alas for the eastern European iceman, Wally was not distracted by the ballerina style artistry as the backhanded poke which came at the end of Jaroslav's’s expressive dance again failed to beat the Brick Wall. He must have been getting rather fed up with Wally by this stage. Never mind, they were still ahead in the game.

Within a minute of the restart the scores were level. Tony “Tosh” Redmond, who is reputed to have been playing for Basingstoke when Queen Victoria was on the throne, sent in a lobbed “shot”, which might in fact have been intended as a dump into the corner. Much to the chagrin of the goaltender, it looped over his shoulder and under the bar. A soft goal which Deano will wish to forget. Tosh looked both shocked and ecstatic at the same time. Canadian Colossus, Steve Moria, picked up the assist. Bison seemed now to be in the ascendancy and looked capable of going on to win the game.

On 48 minutes a hook from Steven Whitfield (like Sam Bullas also an ear stud man) was spotted by the eagle eyed referee, who condemned the unfortunate Wildcats blueliner to 2 minutes porridge. Bison took full advantage and, with less than a minute of the power play gone, went 4-3 ahead with a high speed tic-tac-toe goal of conoisseur’s quality. A long diagonal pass from Sam Oakford found Bison top scorer Joe Miller at the back door. He could have shot himself (I don’t mean with a gun), but instead chose to spear a one timer centring pass across the face of the goaltender to a wide open Steve Moria. The Bison player/coach hammered home his own one timer through the Grand Canyon sized gap between goal tender and post. A blanket of noise indicating euphoria filled the air from the Bison seats. Bison had recovered from a 1-3 deficit to lead 4-3.

With less than 10 minutes remaining, Bison had to survive a 5 on 3 for 47 seconds with both Chris Wiggins (for cross checking) and Tosh Redmond (for delay of game) in the slammer. The Tosh penalty was particularly unfortunate with the flame haired jock spooning the puck over the glass whilst attempting to clear it down the ice to relieve the pressure. Hero of those 47 seconds was the seemingly impregnable Wall with 3 excellent saves from point blank efforts to keep the Wildcats out. With Wiggins back on the ice, but still defending a 5 on 4 power play, Bison came within a Rizla fag paper’s width of going 5-3 ahead when Joe Miller, so deadly in one on ones with goaltenders, broke away, deked and shot, but Skinns was not skinned – he saved and 3-4 it remained.

With the clock ticking down under 2 minutes, Bison once again fell foul of the man with orange armbands, who sent Kurt Reynolds to the cooler for holding an opponent’s stick. Perhaps to play the rest of the game with 4 skaters wasn’t such a bad thing after all as a solid power play kill, such as they had been achieving all evening, would see them home. Well they went one better with a short handed goal to kill off Wildcat hopes. An error in mid ice let in the savvy Slovak, Viktor Kubenko, who bore down on goal challenged by the aforementioned Cesky. At the vital moment, the Czech broke his stick, and, thus emasculated (well not literally of course), was reduced to nothing more than a stickless spectator as Kubenko outwitted his ex-teammate Skinns and hammered the puck firmly into the net. The travelling Bison supporters leapt to their feet and voiced their approval of King Kubo’s score as noisily as the 1883 volcanic eruption of Krakatoa (go on Google it). Viktor’s goal to make it 3-5 had sealed the win.  

Phoenix Triumph on Night of Pukka Pie Sell Out

Bison 0 Manchester Phoenix 5

14/1/12

A slick moving Phoenix side registered their third Planet Ice road win of the season to consolidate their position in the table and extend their winning streak to 7. At the same time Bison’s run of 5 straight victories ended in the most depressing fashion for the Bison fans. No goals or fights to cheer and worst of all no Pukka Pies. The man in Charlestown Chiefs shirt and the bespectacled youth were horrified to find out at the second interval that the food bar had run out and they were forced to make alternative culinary arrangements – more about that later.

Apart from the 5 goals what were the differences between the two sides? Well not a great deal really. However, whereas the Phoenix played some lovely tic-tac-toe hockey, Bison played tic-tac but without the toe. Phoenix finished well and took their chances, Bison did not. Throw into the equation a splendid night of netminding from Steve Fone (BT to the Phoenix fans), who achieved a rare shut out. He would have been a very worthy winner of the Man of the Match award for his champagne performance, but it was Bison old boy, long Ciaron Long, scorer of a brace of goals, who surprisingly skated off with the beer.

It would be fair to say that the first period belonged to Bison. They ended the period having outshot the Phoenix by a considerable 15-5 margin. However, statistics sometimes fail to give the whole picture and, whereas Bison failed to find the net with any of their attempts, Phoenix scored with their first effort and went in at the first buzzer enjoying a 1-0 lead. That goal came in the 5^th minute. Ciaran Long took the puck around the back of the goal, emerged wide and flicked a shot into the far corner of the net over Bison goaltender Stephen Wall’s shoulder. Assists went to Ryan Johnson and Ben Wood.

After bagging 3 power play goals in their last home ice game, Bison might have hoped for further reward from 5 on 4s. On two occasions Luke Boothroyd found himself behind bars for hooking Canadian colossus, Steve Moria. Did he think that Mo was a fish and he was J.R. Hartley? Phoenix proved much more adept at the power play kill than the Bees had been the previous week and Bison could take no advantage. Typical of Bison’s failure to score in the first period were two great chances fluffed by Liam Chong, both from Craig Tribe passes, and another well connected Chong effort saved by Fone.

It was not all doom and gloom for Bison. After all they were moving and passing well and only one goal in arrears. Those wearing rose tinted specs saw every chance of a come from behind win. Phoenix had other ideas, however, and the specs were well and truly torn from the faces of the optimistic and mercilessly ground into the ice. The M-men hammered home their superiority in the 2nd period, firing in 4 unanswered goals to effectively win the game. Any Bison fan who thought the team could come back from that were living in a dream world. They would have needed the wizzarding services of Harry Potter to achieve that and alas Harry was not on the Bison bench.

The goal glut started on 3 minutes into the period. Slava Koulikov skated behind the goal and fired a pass to James Neil on the point. Neil’s wrist shot flew with the accuracy of a sniper’s bullet over Wall’s shoulder, blocker side, for 2-0. Juraj Faith picked up the second assist. Shortly afterwards Sam Oakford was sent to the slammer for interference and Phoenix took their 5 on 4 chance with James Archer flicking Stephen Wallace’s shot past Wall’s shoulder for 3-0. A feature of the power play, however, were the heroics of  Bison’s Man of the Match, Joe Miller, who broke his stick, but was too far away from the bench to collect a replacement and had to continue defending without. He presented a very effective barrier for a while and even managed to block a pass with his skate.

On 30 minutes the scoreboard clicked on to “Visitors 4”. A delayed penalty was called on bouncing Czech, Daniel Volrab, but there was no need for Phoenix to pull their goaltender to bring on an extra skater, as within seconds Tom Duggan (assisted by Archer) had scored. Bison immediately called a time out, but Phoenix must have used their short tactical conference to greater effect as only a minute later they scored again. This time it was long Ciaron Long with his second. Set up by Josh Ward and “Oscar” Harabin (see previous Bison v Phoenix report), Long had all the time in the world to hammer in a slap shot from the slot. All 5 goals had been scored high over Wall’s shoulders – bit of a pattern there. Mo kept faith with Wall and his vote of confidence proved not to be misplaced as Wally achieved a 3^rd period shut out.

The final period was not without incident, but the game went a little flat as Phoenix continued to look solid and Bison ineffective. D-man Harabin almost made it 6-0 on 43 minutes when he skated forward over the Bison blue line and hammered a slap shot against the Bison bar. All the Bison crowd wanted was a goal and they got one with only 4 minutes remaining. However, the score was chalked off as Liam Chong was correctly adjudged to have hand passed the puck to set up the opportunity. The period ended with a frustrated Kurt Reynolds in the box for roughing.

An encouraging feature of the game must have been the performances of Phoenix’s Brits, who bagged all the goals and most of the assists. The import forwards of Faith, Cingel, Kubenko, Moria and Volrab were all shut out, Faith the only one to score a point with his assist for the second goal. At a time when Elite League hockey is struggling financially, weighed down with hefty import player wage bills, it was good to see that indeed “Britain’s got talent”.

Finally a word about the Pukka Pie drought. The aforementioned Charlestown Chiefs man and the bespectacled youth, had to purchase lukewarm cheese and onion “Cornish pasties” in substitution. The Scottish lady in the Redmond shirt in Row E asked of the Chiefs man “what is that?” and it would be true to say that the question was very difficult to answer. The oblong pastry was not crescent shaped, had no crimped crust and looked as if it had been run over by a steam roller. Cornish tin miners invented the pasty - no need to wash hands before lunch as they would eat the pasty holding it by the crust and then chuck the crust away. Doubtless there are many deceased Cornishmen who rotate in their graves at the very thought of this Planet Ice delicacy being described as a “Cornish pasty”.

Miller Hat-trick Stings the Bees

Bison 7 Bracknell Bees 4

7/1/12

Joe Miller (no relation to Mutch the  Miller as far as I am aware) took his season’s tally to 22 goals with a smartly taken hat-trick as Bison recorded what looks like a comfortable win on paper, but actually wasn’t. They made their opportunities count with no fewer than 3 power play goals not to mention a short handed goal amongst the haul of 7. However, they didn’t have it all their own way and there was a time in the 2nd when they appeared to have lost their way and allowed a spirited Bees side to wipe out a 2 goal deficit.

Bison cruised into a 1^st period 2-0 lead. On 10 minutes, Sam Oakford’s slap shot from the point was deflected past Bees’ netman, Carl Ambler, by Craig Tribe. 5 minutes later it was 2-0. During a power play with Ben Johnson (not the Canadian sprinter) serving time for hooking, Marcel Petran sent in one of his characteristic rocket powered slap shots from the point. Ambler stopped the puck, but could only juggle it to the ice. Canadian colossus, Steve Moria, was on hand to sweep it over the line.

The Bees halved the deficit with a power play goal of their own shortly after. Another hooking call resulted in Jacob Heron having his collar felt by the referee. A smart passing move involving Lukas Smittal and Rob Lamey set up James Galazzi with a tap in goal. The period ended at 2-1 to the home side.

We had to wait until 12 minutes into the 2^nd period for another goal, but then were treated to a veritable avalanche with no fewer than 3 in the space of a minute. First of all Smittal found himself in on goal. He fired a vicious wrist shot past Stephen Wall to level the scores at 2-2. Only 11 seconds of play later, Bison restored their lead as Viktor Kubenko took the puck around the back of the goal and fired a pass to Steve Moria, who bagged his second of the night. Bison’s lead was short lived. Martin Masa made it 3-3 with a wraparound goal which must have left a goaltender of Stephen Wall’s experience a trifle disappointed. Had we been able to Wally’s face it would no doubt have been red.

On 35 minutes Nicky Chinn found himself going “down the steps” for hooking (well not literally – it is actually up a step into the box). Bison survived the resultant power play in no small measure thanks to the actions of blueliner Dan Harris, who performed a series of text book defensive plays to block the right hand channel, even throwing himself to the ice on a couple of occasions. It only goes to show you don’t have to touch the puck to do the job effectively.

Bison regained the lead only 41 seconds before the second buzzer with a most unusual score. The puck broke down the ice and was chased by Chris Wiggins and a defenseman. For some reason Carl Ambler decided to charge out from his net like an angry rhino. It seemed like a strange decision as his own player was just ahead of Wiggins and appeared favourite to take the puck. Ambler clattered into puck, Wiggins and all. The puck spilled wide to Craig Tribe, who must have been delighted to see the empty net gaping before him. He shot firmly into the net with the accuracy of a bullet fired from Annie Oakley’s Winchester rifle. It was his second of the game and it made it 4-3. Bees players swamped the referee, protesting that Wiggns had obstructed Ambler and prevented him from getting back into the net, but the officials held in a contrary opinion and the goal stood.

And so into the 3^rd. On 46 minutes Bison old boy, Rick Skene, found himself doing porridge for holding. Bouncing Czech, Daniel Volrab, took the puck forward and then delivered a perfect pass from behind the goal line to Joe Miller to score his first of the night. The Czech/Welsh combination struck again to move the scoreboard on from 5-3 to 6-3 only 3 minutes later with Miller hammering in at the back door after another wonderful set up by the elegant stick handling Volrab. Steve Moria registered the second assist. It was Bison’s 3^rd power play goal of the game.

On 52 minutes an opprobrious fracas of the most shameful variety took place. Following an unsporting hit from behind by Smittal on Liam Chong, Chris Wiggins sought to seek vigilante revenge on Skene. The officials allowed the confrontation to proceed no further than handbags and then promptly dished out a 2 + 2 for charging and roughing to Wiggins, a 2 cross checking to Smittal and a 2 roughing to Skene. I have to say it didn’t look very “rough” to me – just a bit of pushing and shoving.

Moments later Slovak cannon, Marcel Petran, fired in another unstoppable trademark slapshot, this one from the point. I say unstoppable, but it wasn’t really. In fact it proved very stoppable, albeit in a most unconventional fashion. The puck crashed into Ambler’s mask and sent it spinning from his head. It doesn’t matter how you stop ‘em I suppose.

Bison then went belly up on the discipline front from with Reynolds, Petran and Volrab all ending up in stir for three separate infractions committed within a 40 second period. However, they very nearly scored a short short handed goal in the ensuing 5 on 3 with Moria skating clear and hammering in a long range shot which Ambler blocked. It seemed unlikely, especially to the glass half empty Bison fans, that their 3 could survive against the Bees’ 5 and so it proved with Rob Lamey finishing a smart move from Thompson and Galazzi for 6-4. With just under 3 minutes left on the clock and still short handed was it too preposterous to suggest that Bison could throw away their 2 goal lead? Some may have thought so I am sure, but Bison proved stalwart in defense, Alamo style - the difference being that they weren’t all killed like Davey Crockett and his companions. And much to the chagrin of the travelling Bees support, Bison cemented the victory with a short handed goal from Joe Miller to make it 7-4. Moria set free Miller, who broke forward, deked and scored off his backhand to complete his hat-trick with only one minute left on the clock. It was Steve’s 4^th point of the game – 2 goals and 2 assists. Well done to him and all the team. Without wishing to sound disrespectful to the Bees, these are the sort of home ice games which Bison should be winning, but which have proved problematical on past occasions.

Bison Triumph in High Noon Showdown

Bison 5 Guildford Flames 2

31/12/11

Continuing on from their imperious performance last Tuesday at Swindon where they recorded a 6-1 road win, Bison, dressed in black from head to foot Wyatt Earp style, shot down their local rivals, the gun slinging Guildford Flames, who rode into town for a High Noon showdown on the back of 13 straight victories.

It was, however, the Flames who opened the scoring in the 5^th minute through Matt Towe. Bison old boy, Andy Hemmings, slid a pass from behind the goal line for his team-mate to convert. Stuart Potts picked up the second assist. Those Bison fans with glasses half empty must have thought “Here we go again.” However, within 2 minutes Bison were level when a Volrab shot rebounded to Joe Miller, who stabbed the puck over the goal line. It was Millertime once again.

Bison claimed the lead in the 12^th minute with a wonderfully taken power play goal scored by the bouncing Czech, Daniel Volrab. With the slashing Branislav Kvetan, in the box, a defense splitting pass from Joe Miller found Volrab on the boards and powering forward like Stephenson’s Rocket. He cut in diagonally from the right wing and let fly with a left handed wrist shot. The puck flew high over Lee’s shoulder and into the net with the accuracy of Phil “The Power” Taylor throwing for a treble 20. Kurt Reynolds picked up the second assist.

And so the period ended with Bison enjoying a 2-1 advantage. The second period was bound to be a big test with the Flames pulling out all the stops. The glass half empty Bison fans must have had a bad feeling, knowing what the Flames were capable of. Their pessimism proved misplace as it was Bison who power into a 4-1 lead inside the first 4 minutes of the period, hammering two unanswered goals within 24 seconds of each other. First of the brace was created by Jacob Heron. He cleverly delayed his shot as a defenseman slid in front of him. The way to goal then opened up in front of him like the parting of the Red Sea. His powerful wrist shot seemed to be going just wide until it deflected off Craig Tribe and flew past a hapless Mark Lee into the net. A fortuitous goal, but they all count. Bison skipper Nicky Chinn then bagged a goal. Tosh Redmond passed to savvy Slovak Viktor Kubenko, whose behind the goal line pass found Chinn in front of the net. It wasn’t the cleanest of strikes, but in it went to leave the Flames reeling like drunken men. A time out was called to steady the Guildford ship.

Things were starting to look a bit fruity out there and many, including the Block C Gooner in the 87 Crosby shirt, thought there was every likelihood of a fight. Maybe there would have been had Chris Wiggins not been serving a suspension. The nearest we got was an ugly confrontation between Curtis Huppe (rhymes with yuppie, not soup or sup) and Viktor Kubenko. The shaven headed Canadian (OK I couldn’t actually see that from Row F and anyway he was wearing a helmet) and the hirsute Slovak came together and exchanged the contrary views which each held. Perhaps they were discussing hair restoration processes. There then followed a bit of push and shove, which was broken up and not considered violent enough to qualify as “roughing” by the referee. There being no offense called “handbags”, the would be combatants were spared a spell in the box.

By the end of the period the Flames had reduced the deficit with a short handed goal from dangerous Canadian, Nathan Rempel. With only seconds of Adam Savage’s penalty for interference remaining, goal-a-game man Rempel proved he is as deadly a marksman as Wild Bill Hickok (Google him if you like) and with more notches on his stick than Bill had on the handle of his Colt 45. David Longstaff used his long staff to fire the puck into the path of Rempel, who bore down on goal and fired a top shelf wrist shot past Matt Colclough. The glass half empty Bison fans slumped back in their seats and groaned. Even the glass half full fans held back from predicting a Bison win and the genial Brummie in the 33 Kieras shirt refused to don his rose coloured specs, not wishing to tempt fate.

Nevertheless, it was still looking good for the men in black. A Flames onslaught in the 3^rd was to be expected. So good at coming from behind and against a team so good at throwing away leads, Guildford were certain to be throwing the kitchen sink at the Bison goal. Bison needed a fifth goal to ease the pressure and looked perfectly capable of bagging one as long as they continued to take the game to the Flames. And that is exactly what happened. Just under 4 minutes into the period the Margate marauder, Ollie Bronnimann, was put in by Volrab. Ollie broke away without a defenseman to trouble him. He skated forward as fast as Rocket Ron Haslam powering down the home straight at Donnington (OK I might be exaggerating a bit here), foxed Lee as to his intentions and bulged the net before the goaltender could react. It was vintage Ollie.

The fifth goal took away the pressure, but it was far from over with both sides creating many a chance as the game continued to ebb and flow. At 3 goals behind the Flames, declined to pull their goaltender as the clock ticked down, realising that it was a hopeless cause. With a couple of seconds remaining a speculative long range shot came in. Matt Colclough shot out his catcher and nonchalantly plucked the puck out of the air like a frog with a long sticky tongue catching a fly. The clock stopped at 0.5 seconds. Not even the glass half empty fans thought that the Flames could score 3 goals in the last half second. And so it proved. The final buzzer was greeted with a standing ovation. 

Flames man of the match was Jez Lundin and the Bison award went to Kurt Reynolds. This bemused many of the Bison crowd who thought that Matt Colclough would have been a worthy recipient of the beer box. In the absence of Stephen Wall he had a top game with a series of saves, blocks, deflections and catches and was in no small way instrumental in the Flames failing to get within touching distance of Bison.