Bison 3 Bracknell Bees 1
18/2/12
On a night when no fewer of 3 of
the 4 goals scored were short handed, Bison completed a clean sweep of home
victories over Bracknell. It was a reasonably comfortable 3-1 win, but a late
goal saw the chance of a Stephen Wall shut out snatched away from him, Tantalus
style (a bit of Greek mythology there). The goal reduced the Bees’ deficit to
2-1 and brought on a tense finale. But with less than 30 seconds remaining and
Bison defending a 6 on 4 power play, Slovak Cannon, Marcel Petran, settled the
issue with an empty netter scored from behind his own goal line, which sent the
jazz hands twirling.
Bison took the lead in the 11th
minute with the first short handed goal. Bouncing Czech, Daniel Volrab, watched
from the penalty box, having gone there for a slash (should I rephrase that?).
From wide of the goal Canadian Colossus, Steve Moria, saw Nicky Chinn steaming
in and centred perfectly for the Welsh Bison skipper to score with a one timer
past Tom Annetts. The goal was followed by a moonwalk celebration – maybe we
have enough Michael Jackson impersonators for Nicky to be tempted by a new career
and anyway he doesn’t look much like the late Mr. Jackson. The second assist went
to Bison’s other Welshman, the admirable Joe Miller. The only thing which
prevented it from being an all Welsh affair was coach Moria – the Canadian meat
in the lava bread sandwich. Never mind, we’ll still say “Cymru am byth” (Davina
are you reading this?)
Bison had a let off halfway
through the period. A game of pinball in front of their goal saw players of
both sides stabbing, jabbing, poking and slashing at a loose puck, which
eventually Bison goaltender Wall managed to cover with his leg whilst lying
prostrate on the ice. “That was pure Mark Bernard,” said the Scottish lady in
the Redmond shirt (well what other player’s shirt would you expect her to
wear?).
A minute later Bison almost went 2-0
up with Savvy Slovak, Viktor Kubenko, gliding around the back of the goal and
setting up the currently free scoring Kurt Reynolds in front of goal. Kurt’s shot
was well saved by Tom Annetts. Then with the Bees defending a power play, ex
Bison netman Tom stopped a Petran slap shot from the blue line and then butterflied
to stop a Kubenko effort after Bison man of the match, Ollie Bronnimann, the Margate
Marauder, had skated up the boards and fired in a diagonal pass right onto the
Slovak’s stick tape. Annetts was to produce another fine save later, deflecting
away another Petran rocket propelled slap shot from the blue line, this time with
his mask. Maybe he didn’t see it coming - I cannot imagine anyone would willingly
put his head in front of a Petran thunderbolt, mask or not.
Bison had to wait until 38
minutes to increase their lead. A breakaway set up by the defensive duo of
Petran and Reynolds, saw Kubenko bearing down on goal on his Tod Sloan (a bit
of cockney rhyming slang for you there – why not Wikipedia him he’s a very
interesting character). Viktor shot low straight through the 5-hole with
Annetts going into butterfly a fraction of a second too late. On came the goal
light, which for some reason is white not red at this end of the rink, but who
cares?
Into the 3rd period
and in the 54th minute Scott Spearing was lucky to escape a penalty for
throwing punches at Nicky Chinn, which referee Dave Cloutman didn’t see. With
his glasses and newly grown white goatee Mr Cloutman has become a Colonel
Sanders lookalike. Perhaps one of the players distracted his attention by
ordering a KFC bargain bucket just as Spearing was inflicting his violence on
Chinn. Suffice it to say Scott got off scot-free. Vigilante revenge followed
shortly afterwards, however, with Jacob Heron pushing Spearing to the ice. He
ended up on his backside like an upturned turtle much to the amusement of the
crowd, who filled the air with ironic cheering. Chinn would later describe the
affair as “just a bit of fun.”
Then a cataclysmic disaster on
the scale of the 1883 eruption of Krakatoa occurred. With netminder Stephen
Wall looking good for his first shutout for Bison and the clock ticking down
towards 3 minutes remaining, the man in the Charlestown Chiefs shirt jinxed it.
He turned to the genial Brummie in the Kieras shirt and said “are you donning
your rose tinted specs and predicting a shutout”. The Brummie saw the danger
and declined to make such a prediction, but it was too late. It had been said.
Within a minute Bison’s Alamo style defense had been breached and it was all
the fault of the Chiefs man – Wally you know who to come and see. It started at
the Bees end. Petran wound up for yet another of his massive jet propelled slap
shots from the slot. His stick hit the ice and two objects flew forward – the puck
and the blade from his shattered stick. The latter looked likely to clear the
glass behind the Bees’ goal but dipped just short and hit the glass. Petran
skated away immediately to collect a new stick and managed to get back behind
the blue line, but in all the excitement Bison’s formation had gone pear shaped
and suddenly Matt Foord and Shaun Thomspon were in 2 on 1 on Petran. The Slovak
blueliner, versatile though he may be, was unable to expand his physical form
to Rick Waller proportions to cover both attackers. Foord hammered home Thompson’s
pass. Andy Munroe, who had started the move, picked up the second assist. And
even worse for Bison - it was a short handed goal with Masa having been incarcerated
for tripping.
Things now became a trifle tense.
Bracknell came forward looking for the jugular. Shots came in. Wall stood firm.
After one save a bit of scuffle broke out in front of the Bison net, but the
unseemly affray ended without a punch being thrown and no penalty called – it was
just a few players voicing their contrary opinions in the most polite fashion I
am sure. Then Chris Wiggins was called for charging with just over 2 minutes
left. With only 1.25 on the clock, Bracknell called a time out and pulled their
goaltender to make a 5 on 4 power play a 6 on 4. The Bison end of the ice now
appeared more congested that the M25 in the rush hour. But the Bees’ reckless gamble
failed. A face off at the Bison end moved the puck from Moria to Wall to Petran,
who spooned an enormous saucer shot from behind the goal line through the crowd
of players, miraculously hitting no-one. The puck landed and slid menacingly towards
the unguarded net, which gaped as wide as the mouth of a wide mouthed frog. Was
it going in? Yes it was and yes it did. Wall may not have recorded a shut out, but he was
compensated with his first Bison goal assist. He hugged Petran like a long lost
brother. Up went the jazz hands. 3-1 it was and 3-1 it ended.
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