Lightning Doesn’t Strike Twice but Reynolds Does

Bison 3 Milton Keynes Lightning 2

12/2/12

A Kurt Reynolds double strike (to add to the goal he scored last night at Swindon) capped another magnificent performance by the Bison’s no. 7 as the Basingstoke icemen overcame near impossible odds to record a memorable victory over the Lightning. The win was a greater miracle than the turning of water into wine. Impossible odds? Miracle? OK I’m exaggerating. But it was a superb win in which each Bison player can be proud that he gave his all and nothing less (dare I say 110% - I know that’s mathematically impossible). The Problem? A short bench. Indeed a very short bench. As at Swindon the night before Bison had 5 scratches – forwards Kubenko and Chong and defensemen Oakford, Harris and Redmond. That left Petran and Reynolds as the only specialist blueliners with skipper Nicky Chinn icing as an emergency defenseman, as he had the night before. This meant that for the second night in a row these three covered the defense for the entire duration of the game and must, therefore, have averaged 40 minutes of ice time each. They must be fitter than Fit Finlay (go on Google him if you like).

The game had a lively opening. Cameron Wynn, playing only his second game for Bison, must have best astonished to find himself opening on the top line with Daniel Volrab and Joe Miller. In the 1^st minute a 2 on 1 breakaway saw the admirable Miller carry the puck forward and delay his pass until almost on top of Lightning netminder, Alex Mettam. He then unselfishly flicked the puck across the face of the Lightning goal with the accuracy of a Ronnie O’Sullivan black ball pot right into the path of Wynn. Alas Cameron shot wide and the chance was gone. A lively opening.

Within no time Bison found themselves behind. Leigh Jamieson took the puck around the back of the goal, emerged at the back door, took the puck forward, swivelled and shot low to beat Matt Colclough in the Bison goal. It was Jamieson’s 30^th of the season and a goal which cemented his position at the top of the British players scoring chart. Blaz Emersic and Adam Brittle (one of the 4 brothers Brittle) picked up assists.

In the 7^th minute there was an ugly scene of violent play and even more violent conduct which resulted in Grant McPherson being condemned to serve a 4 minute stretch for the dual infractions of tripping and roughing. His victim was Kurt Reynolds, who resisted the temptation to get involved in a fight with the niggly Scotsman, thus preventing the encounter from developing into an unseemly altercation of the most unsavoury variety. McPherson’s incarceration left Lightning needing to survive a 4 minute power play. They failed. 2 minutes in and Reynolds blasted his first of the game to level it up at 1-1. The Margate Marauder, Ollie Bronnimann, fed the Slovak Cannon, Marcel Petran, who slid a cross ice pass into the path of Reynolds. As Kurt fired in, Mettam must have hoped for a wayward shot or, failing that, Divine intervention. It was neither. The D-man's unstoppable wrist shot flew past the hapless goaltender’s shoulder and into the net. On came the red light. It was yet another power play goal for Bison.

Early in the 2nd Lightning were no doubt thankful to survive another Bison power play with Michael Farn banged up for tripping. However, shortly after his liberation Bison took the lead for the first time in the game. Once again Marcel Petran was the playmaker, this time with a diagonal pass arrowed to Bison enforcer, Chris Wiggins, who scored at the back door. 2-1 Bison. Craig Tribe picked up the second assist.

Things went from good to better for the Bison crowd 4 minutes later. Set up by Bouncing Czech, Daniel Volrab, Kurt Reynolds rifled in his second of the game and another top shelfer. The shot deflected in off Mettam’s blocker, which clearly failed to do its job. At 3-1 things were looking comfortable for Bison. Perhaps the genial Brummie in the Kieras shirt was thinking of donning his rose tinted specs. Certainly the man in the Charlestown Chiefs shirt was beginning to feel rather confident of a Bison victory. However, he was soon plunged back into his normal glass half empty state of mind by an MK power play goal to reduce the arrears to 2-3. With Joe Miller behind bars for hooking Bison had a let off when Slovenian Blaz Emersic, formerly of the Rio Grande Killer Bees (yes really), hammered the puck against the angle of post and bar. The Bison fans’ relief was short lived. A blink of an eye later former Bison man, Michael Wales committed treachery of the worst possible kind and scored against his old team. And a goal of great controversy it was. A bundle in front of the goal had the bespectacled youth in Block C shouting “goaltender interference” as the red light came on. The bearded rabble-rouser of Block A later confirmed to the Charlestown Chiefs man as they hung around in the Gents during the second interval (for no other purpose than to discuss the game I hasten to add) that the net had moved off its moorings before the puck crossed the line and the goal should not, therefore, have been given. However, Mr Cloutman, the referee, saw otherwise, allowed the goal and skated back to the red line tapping his white stick on the ice as he went. Assists to McPherson and Green.

Outshooting Bison in the final period, MK fought to level things up, but defense as resolute as at Rorke’s Drift in 1879 prevailed. With only 2 mins 32 remaining Adam Carr virtually threw his team’s chances out of the window with a trip on Reynolds. The eagle eyed Mr Cloutman, looking remarkably like Burl Ives with his newly grown white goatee (Google image him if you like), no longer needed his white stick. He got it spot on, called the penalty and sent Carr down the steps (well actually up one step) for 2 minutes. This meant that Bison had to avoid conceding a very rare short handed goal during the powerplay and then survive the last 28 seconds with Lightning at full strength. As Carr was liberated from the box, Mettam was pulled from the net to give Lightning a 6 on 5 for the final seconds. They failed to capitalise. The final buzzer sounded. Bison players and fans alike raised their arms aloft to celebrate an unexpected victory.

Man of the match awards went to defensemen Marcel Petran (over Kurt Reynolds somewhat surprisingly) and Ross Green, both of whom managed to slip over during the course of the presentation ceremony. This was certainly not the first time Marcel had been off his feet as, during the match, he had thrown himself to the ice on a couple of occasions to make very important blocks. A word also for Matt Colclough, who made a string of important saves, blocks and deflections to round off another excellent game in front of the pipes for him. However, it must be said that the entire team deserved medals.