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.