Bison 3 Slough Jets 8
3/3/12
In the famous cartoon the Blue
Meanies overran peace loving Pepperland, turning everything to stone. The
Beatles came to the rescue in their Yellow Submarine. Last night it was the
Blue Meanies from Slough who invaded peace loving Bisonland – OK “peace loving”
is not really an appropriate expression to use with Chris Wiggins on the ice
(as was confirmed late in the 3rd period). In this case John, Paul,
George and Ringo were not on hand to save the Basingstoke icemen.
Last week Bison crashed at home to
“Potty” by 8-5. Last night another goal avalanche condemned them to an 8-3
defeat at the hands of a very strong “Sluff” outfit, gunning to finish in
second place in the EPL. Aaron Connolly was an easy choice for the Jets man of
the match with a hat-trick and two assists. Joe Miller picked up the Bison
award for another all action display which, on another night, would have yielded
more than one goal. The game may not have moved into overtime, but the Howling
Man at the end of Row E did – see later comments.
However, it was not all gloom and
despondency. In fact by the 16th minute of the 1st Bison
had romped into a 2-0 lead through Miller and Wiggins and looked very capable
of inflicting defeat on their Berkshire rivals. However, Slough pulled it back
to 2-1 with 8 seconds of the period remaining and then proceeded to dominate
the remainder of the game, scoring another 7 and allowing only 1. Tiredness and
a series of defensive errors on the part of Bison combined with some masterful
attacking play and pinpoint accurate shooting from Slough dictated the outcome.
Welsh Wizzard, Joe Miller, opened
the scoring in the 3rd minute. From a pass by Nicky Chinn, Bison’s
Bouncing Czech, Daniel Volrab, hammered a shot against the bar. PING! Miller
was the man on the spot to hammer in the rebound. Then on 16 minutes Chris
Wiggins proved he is more than “just a goon”, as many opposing fans (and
probably players as well) have described him. He showed dogged determination
challenging for the puck against the boards, broke clear and sliced through the
Slough defense to score. The Bearded Rabble Rouser of Block A, who had had a
bird’s eye view from his position, declared that Wiggie’s footwork was worthy
of comparison to Michael Flatley. Assists went to Kubenko and Cameron Wynn, the 16 year old's first EPL point - well done Cam. Things were looking very rosy for Bison.
However, with only 8 seconds of the 1st remaining, Doug Sheppard moved
around the back of the Bison goal and picked out Aaron Connolly in front of the
net. 2-1. Joe Greener was then involved in a frank exchange of opinions with
Nicky Chinn and was lucky not to pick up a penalty to go with his assist for
the goal.
Slough drew level on 24 minutes.
From a face off, the puck fell to Sheppard whose wrist shot flew in top shelf.
Greener and Connolly with the assists. A minute later Chinn was sentenced to 2
minutes porridge for a robust boarding on Andrew Melachrino, the man with a
name which would look more at home as a dish on a Gordon Ramsay menu perhaps.
Melachrino took a nasty hit, but was able to continue after a period of
recovery. The resultant power play produced a second goal for Connolly, who
stabbed the puck across the line from close in. Sheppard assisted. 2-3. Bison
then drew level at 3-3. Viktor Kubenko tried to get in a shot, but realised his
route to goal was blocked and instead slid a cross ice pass to Chinn, playing
as a D-man once again. The Bison skipper sent in a long range shot from the
point and in it went. Craig Tribe picked up the second assist.
A second unseemly incident then occurred.
I didn’t see it myself, but the Genial Brummie in the Kieras shirt (that’s a
bit ironic) said that ex-Bison Mindy Kieras had delivered a head check to
Wiggins. What I did see was a lot of pushing and shoving and Kieras wisely
declining Wiggins’s invitation to take the matter further. Both got a 2 + 2 for
roughing which seemed a little harsh on Wiggins and rather lenient on Kieras.
At the halfway point with the
scores level Bison looked quite capable of powering on to victory, but it was
the Jets who would run the show from then on, firing in 5 unanswered goals. The
goal fest started in the 34th minute. A defensive error yielded
possession of the puck to Adam Calder. He trapped the puck, swivelled and
scored to restore the Jets’ lead at 3-4. Greener assisted. 4 minutes later the
Bespectacled Youth in Block C bellowed “HOLDING!”, but no call was made and
Connolly took possession of the puck and managed to complete his hat-trick with
an angled shot for 3-5. Adam Calder assisted.
Stephen Wall came in to replace
Matt Colclough in the Bison net for the 3rd. Within a very short
space of time things went from bad to worse for Bison. An icing infringement
was called and Heron went “down the steps”. With less than a minute of the
power play gone Kurt Reynolds and was invited to join Heron in the slammer for
slashing. The Howling Man at the end of Row E, who up until that point had
remained uncharacteristically silent, decided it was now time to share his
considered opinion with those around him. “You’re so biased, Cloutman”, he
yelled, threatening to burst the eardrums of his fellow spectators. It seemed
unlikely that Bison could survive the 3 on 5 and indeed they didn’t. A
tic-tac-toe move from Darius Pliskauskas to Aaron Connolly to Dan Davies moved
the score onto 3-6. The Howling Man voiced his further thoughts “That’s 3 goals
you’ve cost us, Cloutman.” One got the impression that Mr. Cloutman was never
going to be on his Christmas card list as he continued to rent the air with his
far from objective views, whilst all the time becoming redder and redder in the
face. Those near him, despite receiving an unwanted aural invasion, must have
started to worry about the possibility of the Howling Man suffering a fatal
seizure. Thankfully he did not.
In the 52nd minute a
bit of push and shove between Kubenko and Galazzi escalated into a full scale
unseemly altercation of the most unsavoury variety with Wiggins and the ever
niggly Jets skipper, Joe Greener. It was difficult to see exactly what happened
from the other side of the rink and with players in between, but the fists certainly
flew and nearby observers declared a “win” for Wiggins. There then followed the
usual negotiations between the officials and the two captains, trying to
unravel who did what to whom. Suddenly the helmetless Greener skated across to
his bench. “He’s been chucked out of the game,” declared the Genial Brummie,
but he was wrong. Not only had Greener not been “red carded”, but he also
escaped censure of any kind. How on earth? That had to be the most
incomprehensible officials’ decisions ever seen at Planet Ice. One can only
assume that Greener possesses a tongue so silver it bears a hallmark and
managed to talk himself out of any form of punishment. Instead Galazzi received
a 2 for roughing and Wiggins a 2 holding and a 2 + 2 + 10 for roughing. The
Howling Man was apoplectic with rage once more. All the while the discussions
were going on Bison goalie Wall sat on top of his goal with legs dangling, looking rather like Humpty Dumpty (thanks for that comparison Catherine) – a strange
and somewhat entertaining spectacle.
The game then resumed. In desperation the man in the Charlestown Chiefs shirt shouted "Come on, Bison. Just give us a goal." But they didn't. Instead Slough rounded off a very
satisfactory night for their fans with another couple of goals, both from the ever
dangerous Pliskauskas, one a back door score on the power play and the other resulting
from a sloppy Bison line change leaving the lethal Lithuanian clear to
skate in on goal and score. Davies assisted on both goals and Terry Miles on
one. Pliskauskas now has no fewer than 40 for the season. The final buzzer was
greeted with a sense of relief by many of the Bison fans – no double figure
score. There was no sign of the Yellow Submarine.
No comments:
Post a Comment