Bracknell Bees 3 Bison 6
11/3/12
In their final meeting of the
season with Berkshire neighbours, the Bracknell Bees, the Bison herd rampaged
through their hosts’ hive, upset the honey pot (or was it the apple cart?) and
made off with a very welcome 2 points. This road win ended a run of 4 straight
defeats and consolidated Bison’s league position ahead of nearest rivals, the
Swindon Wildcats. After romping into a 3-0 lead, the Basingstoke icemen allowed
the Bees to come back to level the game at the beginning of the 3rd and
give them hope of success only to snatch the cup from their lips Tantalus style
with 3 unanswered goals before the final buzzer.
Bison opened the scoring on 4 minutes.
Savvy Slovak, Viktor Kubenko, carried the puck around the back of the net in
his usual elegant style, but then demonstrated that he is much more than just a
pretty sight by delivering a perfect pass to Ollie Bronnimann in front of goal.
The Margate Marauder accepted Kubo’s kind invitation to shoot and hammered home.
Bison doubled their lead in the 8th
minute. Set up by Welsh Wizzard, Joe Miller, and Bouncing Czech, Daniel Volrab,
the Flame Haired Jock, Tony “Tosh” Redmond rifled in a long range wrist shot
for 0-2. Two minutes later it was 0-3. Set on his way by Chris Wiggins, Craig
Tribe put his foot on the gas, powered forward and smashed a slap shot high
into the net. If only the Genial Brummie in The Kieras shirt, Craig’s greatest
admirer, could have seen that, but alas he was absent.
Rocked by the Bison onslaught,
which had yielded 3 goals in only 6 minutes, the Bees called a time out and pulled
ex-Bison goalie, Tom Annetts, doubtless suffering from shell shock, replacing
him with Carl “Scrambler” Ambler (try saying that after a couple of beers). It
seemed rather harsh on Tom, but the move did steady the Bees ship.
Bracknell threw themselves a
lifeline scoring a power play goal in the last minute of the period with Nicky
Chinn banged up for hooking. Set up by Rick Skene and Rob Lamey, Bees’ own
Bouncing Czech, Lukas Smital, rifled in a wrist shot from the slot. Was it “too
Smital, too late”, as the Bearded Rabble Rouser speculated? Well no because
within a minute of the start of the 2nd, it was 2-3 with Martin Masa
getting his name on the scoresheet (does this piece of paper actually exist?).
Don’t ask me to describe the goal because it all happened in the corner I
couldn’t see. All I heard was the distinctive sound of a slap shot and saw a
load of Bees players with their arms in the air. That’s all I can say. What
sort of a rinkside reporter am I? Smital and Skene picked up the assists.
The play ebbed back and forth for
the remainder of the period without further scoring thanks to a series of good
saves and blocks by both goaltenders. 16 year old Cameron Wynn nearly scored
his first goal for Bison towards the end of the period. Put through on goal he raced
forward, but unfortunately slid to the ice before he could get his shot away and
he, the covering defenseman and the goaltender ended up an untidy heap littering
up the crease. The Bespectacled Youth called for a penalty and indeed a penalty
shot, but it did look as if Cam had lost his footing before the D-man and he
went to ground. Nothing was given. The downside
for the period for Bison was the sight of Ollie Bronnimann, just back from
injury, down on the ice and having to leaving the rink injured.
With only a single goal lead to
defend Bison skipper Nicky Chinn drew the players into a huddle at the start of
the 3rd and we can only assume delivered an inspirational speech to
bolster their spirit determination. Alas, Nicky’s words of encouragement proved
as useful as a chocolate teapot as the Bees came back to level terms within a
minute of the restart. Chinny, who had another fine game as a stand in defenseman,
shot the puck around the boards behind the Bison goal towards his defensive
partner, but it was a loose one enabling the Bees to pick up the puck and work
it out front to Rob Lamey. His first shot was saved by Stephen Wall, but his
second found the mark. 3-3 it was. Smital and Skene, the ex-Bison blueliner,
picked up the assists once more. It was Chicago born Skene’s third assist of
the night. Well done to him.
The outcome of the game teetered
on a knife edge. Although the Bees had come back from a 0-3 deficit to level
it, it had been a classic end to end game so far and perhaps the next score was
going to be the crucial one. This indeed proved to be the case and it was Bison
who nosed in front on 46 minutes and then went on to fatally swat the Bees with
another two goals. Viktor Kubenko was the man who made it 3-4. Kurt Reynolds
set Chris Wiggins on his way. He fired a diagonal pass into the path of the Savvy
Slovak, who beat Ambler with a powerful slap shot.
On 52 minutes the scoreboard
clicked on to 3-5. This time Cameron Wynn was the provider for Joe Miller to hammer
in his 27th goal of a great season with Bison. Cymru am byth, Joe!
Marcel Petran got the second assist. Slovensko na veky, Marcel. You’ll have to
Google both of those.
Shortly afterwards Volrab was
unlucky to see his saucer pass out of defense loop over the glass, which
condemned him to a 2 minute stretch for delay of game. The puck landed by a
steward. “Puck! Puck!” shouted the Bespectacled Youth, who had already collected
4 of them during the practice. The steward tossed him the puck, but then had to
ask for it back as they didn’t seem to have a replacement. It turned out that
they did and the Youth got his puck after all. Within seconds of Volrab’s
liberation, Bison scored their final goal, which featured a clever piece of footwork,
of which Lionel Messi would have been proud. Petran and Redmond combined to set
up Liam Chong with only Skene and Ambler to beat. The pass was short and Liam
had to kick the puck forward onto his stick. In doing so he left the D-man for
dead and then smacked the puck into the net, leaving Skene and Ambler wondering
why he wasn’t playing football for Barcelona instead.
5 minutes later the final buzzer
sounded without further scoring. The game had been played in a generally good
spirit and there were no fights. The only unsavoury incident of note occurred late
in the 3rd when Chinn was involved in a bit of push and shove with
Smital, the latter then tripping up the former, who fell to the ice like a sack
of spuds. Referee Szuchs missed that one completely. One wonders whether Fulton
Allen could have done a better job of spotting that one. Fulton who? Fulton
Allen - better known as Blind Boy Fuller. Youtube him…..
No comments:
Post a Comment