Sandvik Hat-trick Knocks the Bison House Down

Bison 2 Swindon Wildcats 5

8/3/14

The Swindon Wildcats provided the banana skin on which Bison slipped. A 5-2 defeat whilst the Manchester Phoenix recorded what was truly a “phoenix from the flames” victory recovering from a 2-4 3^rd period deficit to beat the Guildford Flames 5-4 meant that the Basingstoke ice men relinquished top spot to their Manchester rivals. With only 4 league games left, including a tough road game at Phoenix, Bison’s chances of snatching an unexpected EPL title look to be ailing. However, anything can happen in hockey and the Fat lady isn’t singing yet.

The Cats have won one and lost one in their visits to Planet Ice this season and were clearly not going to roll over and have their tummies tickled. They took the lead on 5 minutes with an all import goal. Jan Kostal and Jonas Hőőg set up Henri Sandvik, who fired in a wrist shot from the point. 1-0 Cats.

Things had started badly for Bison. They were to get worse in the 11^th minute when Matt “The Tank” Selby was adjudged to have butt ended and had his butt end kicked out of the game. “Match penalty,” said the referee and off to the locker room went the hapless Selby. This left Bison as thin on the blue line as the hair on Rabbit’s Foot Joe Baird’s head with Carl Graham dressing but not icing apparently due to injury.

There was no further scoring in the period, but there were two incidents of note. Firstly, in the 13^th minute, there was a coming together of Ryan “You What?” Watt and Marvellous Miroslav Vantroba. Suddenly the on ice disagreement detonated into a dispute of the most disgraceful and dishonourable description with Watt throwing punches at the follically challenged Slovak D-man, who stood his ground and declined to retaliate. The end result was a roughing penalty for Watt.

Shortly after Tomas “ Grandmaster” Karpov crumpled to the ice, having been high sticked (or is it high stuck?) in the face. Eventually the whistle was blown. Heard of Howlin’ Wolf? He was a great blues singer in the 50s/60s. He had a unique voice to go with his huge 300 pound 6’6” frame. (Why not Youtube “Howlin’ Wolf  Smokestack Lightning”). Well Bison have their own Howlin’ Wolf, the Howling Man of course. He also has a huge voice, but his differs from Wolf in that Wolf’s vocals were decipherable, whereas the Howling Man’s utterances are not. On this occasion, as he cranked up to full volume, the reason for his protestation was clear, but alas characteristically incomprehensible. It carried no weight as the myopic officials declined to impose any penalty.

The period ended at 1-0 Cats with Bison wondering how they hadn’t got at least one of their 19 shots on goals, never mind the ones which went high or wide, actually in the net. Never mind. It took them only 5 minutes of the 2^nd to level it. Lumberjack Joe Rand slewed a cross ice pass to Marvellous Miroslav Vantroba on the point. The balding blue liner raised his stick high and, as he brought it down to the ice, we heard a sound akin to a rifle crack. The puck left his stick faster than a champagne cork fired from a bottle. The goal judge must have been thankful that the net killed the puck as it looked as if the rocket shot had sufficient venom to shatter the glass behind and make for an uncomfortable moment for the man on the high stool. The net bulged and so did Marvellous Miro’s eyes. Scenes of thrilled triumphalism radiated forth from the Bison blocks. It was 1-1 and, as expressed by the Cats’ official web site match reporter,“the game would be found to be tied up” An interesting turn of phrase.

Tied up the game may have been, and thankfully it was only the game which was tied up, but not for long because only 2 minutes later Sandvik bagged his second, this one a power play goal on the wraparound with Lumberjack Joe Rand doing time for a hook. Sam Bullas’s shot was saved, but Sandvik picked up the puck behind the goal and swept it in at the back door before Dean Skinns could recover. 2-1 Cats.

Further misfortune befell the hapless homesters in the 31^st minute. Aaron Nell, more dangerous than Danger Mouse himself, battled hard on the boards behind the goal, worked the puck free and fed an unmarked Floyd Taylor in front of the net. A snap shot and it was 3-1 Cats. The Swindon reporter described it as “a good attempt in front of net to enforce a divide between the two sides”. 

There was indeed a divide between the two sides, namely a 2 goal divide. In hockey a 2 goal lead can be easily overturned and only 2 minutes later Bison took the first step by making it a one goal game. The scorer was again Vantroba. The Swindon reporter described the proceedings thus, “an attacking game quickly bought about the game’s next goal with Basingstoke landing their second and through a long range effort from previous scorer Vantroba once more”. Indeed a long range effort it was - another slap shot, this one from the blue line. The puck was fired home with the force of a cherry stone spat by Brian Krause (Who? Why the cherry stone spitting world record holder of course - 93 feet 6.5 inches by the way). Cuddly Joe Greener was declared as the assistant to the scorer.

“A 3-2 score would be taken into the third period,” declared the Swindon scribe and it was. Bison needed to step on the gas. This they did, firing in 20 shots on the Cats’ goal. Alas Stonewall Stevie Lyle was equal to all of them, saving comfortably and not really being tested. And it would be the Cats who would add a further 2 goals to seal a 5-2 win. Their first was scrambled effort in the blue paint with Jan Kostal, set up by Sandvik and Steven Whitfield, eventually forcing the puck past Dean Skinns at the 3^rd attempt. That made it 2-4, but the score remained this for only 3 minutes when, as the Swindon scribe with his unusual use of the English language described, “the Wildcats then landed the final blow as Sandvik would score a fifth at speed and with, score his hat trick with a rush upon net.” A final blow it was and an ignominious one at that, for the goal was a short handed effort with a hooking Richardson doing porridge for …… hooking. Sandvik won a scrap on the boards at halfway, broke clear, forced Skinns to commit and then slid the puck across the line at the back door to complete his hat-trick. The exhibition of exultation, elation, ebullience and ecstasy (not in pill form) amongst the Cats’ faithful was matched in equal measure by a display of distress, disappointment, depression and dejection in the home blocks.

It was 5-2 Cats and, although a comeback from here was not an impossibility, it didn’t seem likely as Bison continued to be frustrated by the rock solid Lyle. The clock ticked down to zero and it was all over. The Bison roof had fallen in. Their fans, who had been climbing the walls in frustration, were finally floored, their spirits down in the gutter. Their team looked drained after reaching the ceiling of their ability and were now being shown the door. Cementing the win, the Cats’ 5th goal, potted by Sandvik, the architect of their success, had well and truly knocked the Bison house down and their season was beginning to flash in front of their eyes. The Cats had been presented with a window of opportunity and, with a bricks and mortar performance, had shaken their opponents down to the foundations and wiped the floor with them. They had built on their early opportunities, and, although Bison had plastered the Cats’ goal with shots in P3, their goaltender had rendered their efforts ineffectual and they had finally subsided. The Bison league season had now descended to the basement of disappointment, as the Cats’ faithful raised the rafters and the Bison faithful slated their D.