Blueline Horror Show

Bison 5 Peterborough Phantoms 8

25/2/12

Hmmm….where to start? Condemn them? No. I would give them medals – all of them. Maybe this was the night when Bison’s weeks of short benching, not to mention the current spate of illness raging along the roster, finally caught up with them. Too often caught in 2 on 1s, 3 on 1s and even a 3 on 0 at one stage (goaltender Stephen Wall miraculously saved that one!), the Bison players’ fatigue and poor health seemed to take its toll. Throw into the recipe a Phantoms team desperate to get in contention for the playoffs, but possessing a defense as holed as a colander, and you begin to get an idea of how it rained goals at Planet Ice last night. Following on from the 6-6 game in Peterborough last Sunday (Bison won in a shoot out), we saw another 13 goals here last night. Quite a few of the 8 “Potty” scored would have been prevented by a fit and full strength Bison side on another night. The hockey gods went AWOL.

It was difficult to believe at the end of the 1^st period that the game would explode with goals after a rather dull 1^st passage of play ending 0-0. However, within 16 seconds of the start of the 2^nd, Bison took a 1-0 lead through the admirable Joe Miller, Bison’s top scorer. Bouncing Czech, Daniel Volrab, speared in an inch perfect pass from wide to put in Joe. The Welsh Wizzard raced forward like an accelerated particle (bit of astrophysics there), deked and scored. The lead didn’t last long. In the 22nd minute it was all square at 1-1 with Will Weldon rifling home a Robbie Brown rebound off the post. It took only a couple of minutes for the Phantoms to snatch the lead. A 2 on 1 saw Tom Carlon and James Ferrara get the better of Marcel Petran, Ferrara scoring.

It looked like Bison were going to reach the buzzer trailing, as, with the minutes of the period ticking away, they found themselves defending a power play. A rather harsh call condemned Joe Miller to serve 2 minutes in the cooler. However, the deadly Czech/Slovak (not Czechoslovak – doesn’t exist any more) combination of Daniel Volrab and Viktor Kubenko pulled a short handed goal out of the bag, rather than a rabbit out of a hat. Volrab’s cross ice pass found King Kubo all on his “tod” (see last week’s report) at the back door. A firm shot planted between goaltender King and post caused the goal light to illuminate. Nicky Chinn picked up the second assist. 2-2 seemed a fair reflection.

Now you would have thought that 3 final period goals would be enough for Bison to win the game. Well actually no. Why not? Because they allowed (why do we use that word “allow” – it makes it sound so polite) no fewer than 6 goals, including 3 which were scored in a little over one minute. The goal avalanche started in the 42^nd minute with Maris Ziedins sending in a Latvian slapshot under Wall’s English leg from a Canadian pass by Jeff Glowa. An interesting combination of nationalities. 2 minutes later the game was tied up again at 3-3 with a power play goal. Slovak, Kubenko, Bison’s man of the match, took the puck around the back of the goal and fed Canadian Colossus, Steve Moria, who was sitting (well standing actually) on the post with no Phantom to scare him. It was a simple tap in for Mo as he beat the English King (don’t misunderstand – he’s not royalty).

The glass half full Bison supporters, now swaggering with fresh confidence, urged their team forward to what they envisaged would be certain victory. Alas it was the other lot, the glass half empty Jonahs, who were proved right. The Bison crowd sat groaning and open mouthed in disbelief as their team crumbled like the walls of Jericho, only I didn’t hear any Phantoms players blowing trumpets. It must have been the worst minute of ice hockey experienced at Planet Ice this season as the score ticked from 3-3 to 3-4 to 3-5 to 3-6 and game over. The 1^st of the Phantoms’ goal glut was unfortunate for Bison to say the least. Liam Chong fluffed a slap shot and could only flounder on the ice and watch as Richard Bentham picked up the loose puck, skated in on Wall and scored. Then James Ferrara scored his second of the game with two Bison players sprawling on the ice and out of the game and the bespectacled youth in Block C bellowing louder than the Howling Man for a penalty against the Phantoms which wasn’t called. Both goals were unassisted. Then to add insult to injury former Bison idol Ondrej Lauko treacherously sneaked in a near post shot. Bison were shell shocked and reeling from a series of unfortunate occurrences which had led to 3 goals being scored from 3 shots. A time out was called by bench coach Tosh Redmond, who managed to inject a bit of Gaelic spirit into the flagging players. A rejuvenated Bison reduced the arrears 2 minutes later with a Marcel Petran TNT powered slap shot goal from the point. It was lucky that the puck was made of solid rubber or it would have burst under the impact. Moria was credited with an assist. It was now 4-6.

Just over 11 minutes remained. At Peterborough on Sunday Bison had been in an identical position and had pulled back from 4-6 to 6-6, going on to win the game in a shoot out. Many wondered if history would repeat itself. Such thoughts were exposed as nothing more than a pipe dream in the 55^th minute as Peterborough took advantage of a 3 on 1 and increased their lead to 7-4 through Canadian player/coach, Chris Allen. Ziedins with the assist. That seemed to knock the stuffing out of Bison. With the clock ticking down a scandalous altercation occurred between former team-mates Lauko and Kurt Reynolds with both being banged up for roughing. In Reynolds’s case the punishment seemed a bit harsh as he merely shoved Lauko in retaliation, rather than landing a meaty blow upon his opponent’s person, but the referee obviously saw more in it than I did from Block C and both players were escorted by the men in stripes to the bad boys’ pen.

Very soon after the 4 on 4 turned into a 4 on 3 in the Phantoms’ favour as Joe Miller was somewhat harshly chucked out of the game for high sticking. It looked like the final curtain of the night for Bison, but, quite unexpectedly, they soon scored their second short handed goal of the night. Assisted by Chinn, Chong drove the puck past King for 5-7. Chinn/Chong/King - those names go so well together.

Scoring over? Alas for the Bison faithful, no. Tom Carlon rounded off a great night for the ghostly visitors with a final score inside the last minute (assisted by Ziedins) to make it an astonishing scoreline of 5-8 and send the 16 travelling Potty supporters (perhaps I should rephrase that) home with 8 goals and a rare road win to give them a warm glow inside. The Bison fans (or some of them at least) had to be content with the semi-warm glow obtained by ingesting a lukewarm Pukka pie.