Unhappy Return to Planet Ice for Deano

Bison 5 Swindon Wildcats 4

4/2/12

On a night when it rained power play goals, it was the two goaltenders who would decide the issue. Bison’s Stephen Wall enjoyed a good game, allowing 4 admittedly but stopping so many more. Returning Bison old boy, Dean Skinns, was unlucky to see the game swing from 4-3 in the Wildcats’ favour to 4-5 with one soft goal and one scrambled goal, both of which he should have kept out.

In only the 1^st minute the Wildcats opened their account – a more legitimate account than the Swiss bank account in the name of Harry’s Redknapp’s dog. From a melée behind the Bison goal, the puck squirted forward like ketchup from a plastic bottle to Jarolsav Cesky. The bouncing Czech stabbed in past Wall from point blank range. Nell assisted.

On 12 minutes another of Swindon’s Czech imports, Jan Melichar, found himself doing a stretch for interference. 13 seconds into Bison’s power play, Petran was called for holding and joined Melichar in the cooler. When the door of Melichar’s cell swung open the D-man returned to the ice with Bison’s skaters committed forward. Cesky’s pin point pass from defense found Melichar on the Bison blue line. He brilliantly controlled a bouncing puck, turned and skated in on Wall, beating him with a top shelfer. It was a superb goal. Amazing to recount, this was the first goal scored by a Swindon blueliner this season. It makes you appreciate the goal scoring contribution of Bison’s Petran. The Slovak D-man would add to his tally later in the game to bring his season’s haul to an impressive 15.

Towards the end of the 1^st the puck looped up into the crowd. The man in the Charlestown Chiefs shirt in Block C flung himself to his right and pulled off a brilliant one handed diving catch of which Matt Prior would have been proud. O.K. I’m exaggerating – it was a dolly really. Shortly afterwards the new puck hammered into Petran’s ribs as he stood behind the barrier. OUCH! (Thanks for that snippet, Carol & Laura).

With 13 shots on goal in the 1^st Bison were unlucky not to find the net. The genial Brummie in the Kieras shirt had obviously left his rose tinted specs at home. “Oh no. It’s not going to be one of those nights, is it?” he wailed. Bison needed to get back into the game as soon as possible, as the Wildcats were playing some impressive attacking hockey with slick moving and passing, particularly on the break, and looked quite capable of increasing their lead. However, the Basingstoke icemen managed to peg them back with only a minute of the 2^nd gone. From a face off in the Wildcats’ defensive zone Steve Moria found flame haired Jock, Tony Redmond, close to the blue line. Tosh killed the puck and skinned Skinns with an unstoppable top shelf wrist shot.

Bison continued to press forward and levelled it on 31 minutes. With Jonas Hoog imprisoned for slashing, Bison continued their good form of power play goal scoring in recent matches with another. Moria and Miller worked the puck to Marcel Petran lurking at the point. He killed the puck and raised his stick high. Netman Skinns knew what to expect. He realised that he wouldn’t have a hope of reacting to the colossal slap shot that was about to come his way and threaten to take his head off. He must have hoped that he could inflate like a car air bag to block the goal. Whether or not he sucked in air in an attempt to expand his form only he will know. Suffice it to say, he remained the same size. In flew the Slovak’s exocet past the hapless goaltender’s shoulder and up went the jazz hands. 2-2, but not for long. Within a couple of minutes it was 3-2 with Bison’s own bouncing Czech, Daniel Volrab, deflecting in. It was another power play goal with Cesky in the bad boy’s locker for slashing. Moria and Sam Oakford picked up the assists.

A minute later a bundle in front of goal gave rise to an angry exchange involving Chong, Chinn and Pinc, the latter stabbing away at Wall as he covered a loose puck. Pinc and Chong had their collars felt with 2 minutes each for slashing and cross checking respectively, but Chinn got away with it. Shortly after Joe Miller joined Chong in the slammer for hooking and Bison found themselves on a 3 on 4 power play, which they successfully killed. Then 10 seconds before the end of the 2^nd, there arose an unseemly altercation of the most unsavoury type. Petran fell spread-eagled to the ice and covered the puck. Jonas Hoog tried to shovel it out from beneath the fallen blueliner. Volrab took exception and he expressed his views to Hoog while Miller tangled with another Wildcat. Amazingly it was only Volrab who attracted a penalty – 2 minutes for roughing. With Redmond already incarcerated for hooking, Bison were once again reduced to 3 skaters, carrying over to the 3^rd. They survived for 41 seconds of the 3^rd before Aaron Nell scored with a close range wrist shot for 3-3 assisted by Cesky and Pinc.

Nell bagged his 2^nd goal only 3 minutes later to push Swindon 4-3 in front. Ryan Aldridge’s shot was blocked by Wall, but the puck lifted into the air and was hammered into the net by Nell, like a cricketer hooking for the boundary. The bespectacled youth in Block C raised his arms in protest. “HIGH STICKING!” he bellowed as loudly as the Howling Man on the end of Row E would have. The ref disagreed.

The Wildcats kept their lead for 5 minutes until Nicky Chinn levelled it up at 4-4 with a goal which must have left Skinns blushing. Chinn’s close range low shot didn’t appear to be going in, but the puck deflected off the unfortunate netminder’s left leg and dribbled inside the post and over the line. Oh dear, Deano. Petran and Oakford with the assists.

With Bison pressing at the Swindon end for an opening to score a winner, an opprobrious fracas between Chris Wiggns and Michal Pinc erupted. An ugly challenge from behind on the former by the latter caused a confrontation on the boards, which initially seemed to be going no further than pushing, shoving, posturing and mouthing. Suddenly the fists flew. Separating the combatants, the referee imposed sentences of 2 + 2 on Wiggins and 2 + 2 + 10 on Pinc, which put him out for the rest of the game - a severe handicap to the Wildcats who had lost their top playmaker whilst still in with a chance of victory.

Bison’s 55^th minute winner caused Deano a final embarrassment. Jacob Heron skated through a Wildcats defense, which looked barely more mobile than Lot’s wife, and bundled the puck in past Skinns, after much scrabbling in front of the net. Liam Chong assisted. The goalie’s confidence seemed to be visible deteriorating the longer the game went on. Another 20 minutes of play might have seen him twitching like a shell shock victim. A downside for Bison fans was Viktor Kubenko being helped back to the dressing room with an injured ankle, which could see him miss a few games.Volrab and Nell were men of the match.