Bison 3 Milton
Keynes Lightning 2
29/9/13
Following on
from the previous night’s goalfest at Milton Keynes with Bison running out 6-3
winners and Shoeless Joe Miller grabbing a hattrick, the second half of the
double header took place at Planet Ice last night with Bison again taking the
victor’s laurels with all five of the
game’s goals most unusually being scored on the power play.
The contest
began with a typical Sunday night feel about it, but boiled over close to the period’s
halfway mark when Cuddly Joe Greener and Janne Jokilla emerged from a bundle in
the corner in obvious contrary discussion. Perhaps Jokilla wanted to live up to
his name and kill a Joe. He had come to the right place – we have four to
choose from. Suddenly Grant McPherson steamed into the affray. “Third man in”
we all thought. Fortunately for McPherson the scandalous scuffle had not scaled
up into a shocking skirmish of the most sordid sort and so he escaped a “third
man” punishment. When the dust had settled, the officials doled out their
sentences to the miscreants. Strangely enough, both McPherson and Jokilla
escaped censure entirely and it was slashing Joe and roughing Ben (Russell) who
were invited to take a 2 minute break each. I am not sure how that one was
worked out.
Further violence
occurred on 12 minutes and Leigh Jamieson was called for roughing on Vantroba.
Into the box he went. Bison’s consequent power play bore fruit. Tomas
“Grandmaster” Karpov fed Shoeless Joe Miller. Joe’s back handed wrist shot
thudded against the pads of 17 year old goaltender Jordan Hedley. He thought he
had saved it, but, little did he realise until too late that the puck, not
totally devoid of momentum, had dropped from his pad and was continuing, albeit
rather slowly, in pea rolling motion towards the goal line. Eventually, when
the young netman had been appraised of the situation by his team mates presumably
shouting in pantomime fashion “it’s behind you”, he turned around and swept the
puck away as if swatting an annoying fly. Unfortunately, the referee was already
pointing netwards with a flat hand and indeed the Bearded Rabble Rouser of
Block A was already leading his block comrades, not in an illegal insurrection
to overthrow the ruling class, but in a raucous celebration of the goal. 1-0
Bison it was and Joe’s 4th goal in 2 nights against MK – they must
have been sick of the sight of him.
The period ended
in spectacular style with Bison on another power play. First Hedley saved
Cuddly Joe Greener’s back door snap shot and then Leigh Jamieson broke and was
in on Skinns for a short handed goal effort when the buzzer sounded to stop him
in his tracks.
Both teams had
their chances in the 2nd but it was not until late on that a
breakthrough was finally made with Bison grabbing another power play goal. With
the clock running down, Michael Farn was adjudged to have hooked Grandmaster
Karpov. There was no no need for the officials to read Farn his rights. He
didn’t have any. He entered the box to serve a custodial sentence. Before it
expired and with the period entering its last minute, Bison skipper Nicky Chinn
received the puck from Marvelous Miroslav Vantroba and steamed forward towards
the MK goal. No fainéant is Chinny. No what? OK – no sluggard is he. His speed,
movement and stick handling left the crowd gasping in admiration. An inch
perfect diagonal pass towards the left wing found a team mate barrelling in in
support. Was it Jo Brand? Thankfully not. It was Joe Rand and he hammered in a
short sided top shelfer which beat the goalie blocker side, arrowing in over
his shoulder. It was a move and finish which equalled the combined artistry of Picasso, L.S. Lowry, Constable and Monet, but
thankfully not all on the same canvas. 2-0 Bison.
Into the 3rd
we went with MK still looking for a goal, but they didn’t have long to wait.
Only 4 minutes into the period they scored a power play goal of their own. With
Joe Baird doing porridge for a slash Bison were outnumbered, outthought and out
of sorts. Set up by Jamieson and Emersic, Stanislav Lascek hammered in from
close range as the net moved off its moorings. A discussion amongst officials
and captains ensued. It was judged a good goal and 2-1 it was. Bison nerves
began to jangle. The concession of the MK goal had proved as undesirable to the
Bison backers as finding a camembert cheese, 12 months past its sell by date,
at the bottom of an incontinent poodle’s basket. The visitors were most
decidedly back in the game with plenty of time remaining.
As the clocked
ticked down to 6 minutes remaining, it was riveting stuff. The nuts and bolts
of it were that Bison really needed to tack on another goal or see the dovetail
joint of their superiority come apart. If they didn’t nail MK now, they could
be screwed. The opportunity came with another power play for Bison, Grant
McPherson being sent to the slammer for stick holding (someone else’s I
presume). Nicky Chinn worked the puck behind the net to Tomas “Grandmaster”
Karpov, the former describing the latter after the game as a “quick little
bugger” or “rychlé malý prevít“ in the latter’s native tongue (that is if Google
Translator is to be believed). The latter took possession and,
fulfilling Chinny’s assessment of his abilities, flew around the back of the
goal and sneaked the puck in on the wraparound. The net moved off its moorings
once again, but the puck was adjudged to have crossed the line and a good goal
was declared. 3-1 Bison. Remember that scene in “Shawshank Redemption” when
Andy Dufrayne smashed a hole in the sewer pipe and material of an unmentionable
composition burst forth? Well the explosion of celebration in the Bison blocks
was of a similar variety in terms of spontaneity and force, but thankfully of a
far less unsavoury nature.
Hardly any
further time had elapsed before MK had the puck in the net at the other end.
Once again the net moved off its moorings, but this time the passing of the
puck through the goal frame was adjudged to have occurred after the
dislodgement and the goal was declared illegitimate.
With time
running out MK’s chances of winning the game from 1-3 down were now hanging by
a thread, like an overweight spider which had banqueted on too many flies
desperately clinging to a gossamer thread. Just as that thread would soon break
plunging the bloated arachnid to his doom, so MK’s thread would also snap, but
not before a last desperate gamble which nearly paid off. With only 1:27 on the
clock Cuddly Joe Greener was banged up for hooking. The Lightning pulled their
goaltender making it 6 on 4, and with 34 seconds remaining, Lascek bagged his
second goal of the game with a top shelfer to make it 3-2. Confusion reigned as
Greener came out of the penalty box only to be replaced by Lumberjack Joe Rand,
sent there for a slash in the build up to the goal thus maintaining MK’s
advantage. Bison had 26 seconds to survive and, despite some hairy moments, survive
they did. The buzzer sounded and it was all over.
Bison’s Man of
the Match was Kurt “the Knife” Reynolds for, not only another great night on
the blueline, but also some impressive contributions to the attacking play,
during which he nearly opened his season’s account on more than one occasion.
Young goaltender Jordan Hedley took the MK top banana award with a fine display
marred only by the concession of a pea roller and a wraparound. A great result
for Bison and a fine 4 point weekend to follow their 4 point weekend last time
out. It was worthy of cracking open the bubbly. The Genial Brummie wished he
had brought along a jeroboam of the finest champagne from his cellar (possibly
a vintage Moët & Chandon or a Bollinger) so that he could celebrate in a
manner most fitting. However, he had omitted to bring a bottle. Just as well as
Planet Ice might have charged him corkage. And so he was left to celebrate with
a frothy cappuccino from the lobby hot drinks machine instead.
No comments:
Post a Comment