Bison 3 Milton Keynes Lightning 2
8/11/4
A fine double
scoring performance from Blaz Emersic came close to completing a Lazarus style
rise from the dead for Milton Keynes Lightning at Planet Ice last night.
Trailing 3-0 at the end of the 2nd and having been outplayed, MKL
nearly pulled it off, but at the end of proceedings Lazarus’s feat remained
unrepeated and, in contrast, they were as dead as the Monty Python parrot.
The first period
was fought out in a competitive spirit and almost ended honours (or rather lack
of them) even. It wasn’t until the clock ticked down to 1:07 remaining that the
deadlock was broken. The scorer was Cuddly Joe Greener on the power play with a
hooking Emersic serving time. Set up by Tomas “Grandmaster” Karpov and
Marvellous Miroslav Vantroba, Cuddly Joe rang the puck off the post with a shot
from the slot. He followed in and bundled in the rebound. The goal light did
not illuminate. The goal judge’s chair was empty. Had he gone off
to buy a Pukka pie? It mattered not. Referee Szucs was happy it was a goal and
he indicated such by pointing at the goal with a flat hand. 1-0 Bison. In Block
O the visiting party of French onion men from Onnion (yes the place really
exists) hurled their berets into the air and offered a sacrifice of their
sacred vegetable to the hockey gods. OK they weren’t really there, but, had
they been…..
Bison needed to
step up as gear and this they did in P2. Outshooting MKL by 12-7, they piled on
another couple of goals to finish the period a comfortable 3-0 ahead.
The first of
their P2 goals on 26 minutes was a peach. In terms of artistic merit, it wasn’t
just a can of paint thrown onto a blank canvas, hung in the Tate and declared
to be a work of art. No it was a masterpiece of Rembrandt proportions. Michael “Muzzy”
Wales worked the puck off the boards and passed inside to Grandmaster Karpov,
whose pass on to Grant Rounding at the back door was so swift that goaltender Jordan
Hedley couldn’t move quickly enough to close the gap. Had Dr. Bruce Banner been
in goal, he could have become very angry and transformed himself into the
Incredible Hulk and, in doing so, blocked the net completely, not to mention
frighten the Bison forwards. However, the custodian of the pipes wasn’t Dr.
Banner. It was the hapless Hedley and he proved incapable of morphing into the
Incredible Hulk, nor any sort of hulk come to think of it. Rounding rounded off
the move with a backhander across the line through gap between Hedley and post.
2-0 Bison.
In between the
two P2 goals we were treated to a couple of bizarre decisions from the referee.
Firstly Aaron “Billy” Connolly was in on goal, but received a nudge which
knocked him into the goaltender. The decision was a 2 minute penalty for Billy
for interference. Eh? Shortly afterwards Long Ciaron Long was high sticked in
the face and shed blood. The call? Nothing at all. Eh? The Bison backers
disagreed with the Connolly decision and then the Long non-decision, but not in
a polite, placid or perfunctory manner. Pish no! Powerfully and pulsatingly
passions poured from the peeved populous. Piercing and petulant were their
pained protests. To no avail.
On 34 minutes,
Bison stormed into a 3-0 lead with a finish from Grandmaster Karpov of the
highest quality. The goal was created by Grant Rounding. It has to be said that
the defending was humungously horrendous and hideously horrible. You couldn't
say the Lightning D was blowing hot and cold, as no hot was involved. It was
more a case of blowing cold and cold. They found themselves exposed in a 2 on 1,
but still had a chance of breaking up the move. Rounding took possession of a
loose puck in the neutral zone and powered forward over the red line. However,
he knocked the puck too far and the covering D-man got his stick to it, but the
latter seemed not to want the puck and gave it straight back. Rounding’s pass
to Karpov on the left wing was met with a thunderous angled first timer which
flew into the net over Hedley’s catcher before he could react. 3-0 Bison. The
goal caused the Man with 3 Ear-rings to become so overjoyed he wanted to burst
into song. He couldn’t make up his mind between “Funky Moped” and “Goody Two
Shoes” and thankfully sang neither.
MKL were sinking
without a trace. If they were to salvage anything from the game, they had to
play a lot better than they had been in the first 2 periods. What we saw in P3
was a transformed visiting team. They pulled back 2 goals, both on the power
play, and came within a Rizla fag paper’s width of levelling the game. Their
first goal came on 42 minutes. With Rabbit’s Foot Joe Baird called for high
sticks and serving time. Bison were caught exposed. Blaz Emersic broke forward
with shouts of “OFFSIDE” from the Bison backers ringing in his ears. It mattered
not a jot as no call was made. Emersic barrelled in on goal and beat Dean “Deano”
Skinns with a clever deke and backhand across the line. 3-1. Connor Goode and
Leigh Jamieson were awarded assists.
Emersic’s and
MKL’s second goal came with 6 minutes remaining. Long Ciaron Long was adjudged
to have held a stick he was being hooked with. No call against MKL, but a 2
minute sentence of solitary for Long Ciaron. Eh? Bison looked to have killed
the penalty, but, with 19 seconds remaining, an event occurred which meant they
hadn’t. Michael Farn and Grant McPherson worked the puck to Emersic in the area
between the slot and the point. He raised his stick high above his head. No
need for Mystic Jo to hold a séance and call on the spirits from the other side
to help her predict what was about to happen – it was bleedin’ obvious to all. He
brought his stick down in a sweeping arc to hit the ice first then puck second
within a split second. The puck lifted from the ice and flew like a rocket
propelled missile over the screened goaltender’s shoulder and into the net. The
noise from the visiting fans (all 20 of them) which greeted the goal was of
avalanche-esque proportions or at least in relative terms. At 3-2 it was now a
one goal game and 6 minutes to play. MKL hopes were high.
Bison needed to bag
a 4th to fulfil Mystic Jo’s prediction of 4-2 or shut the game down
and snuff out the Lightning attacking threat. They failed to claim that goal,
but they achieved the latter with defending as hard as a Pukka pie after 120
minutes in a brick kiln at 1,000°C. Typical of the resolute and determined last
stand/bodies on the line style defending was, as you might expect, Kurt “The
Scissors” Reynolds. His twisting and turning style of skating to get out of hot
situations, his puck control, his positional sense and his physical presence,
not only in the final phase, but also throughout the game, made him a dead cert
for Bison’s man of the match. Who got it? Tomas Karpov. Eh?
The clock ticked
down, as Bison denied MKL the space to create more than a handful of
opportunities. The buzzer sounded and Bison were victorious. Bad luck Mystic
Jo. A 3-2 prediction last week with the game ending 4-2 and a 4-2 predication
this week with the game ending 3-2. Like Eric Morcambe you’re playing all the
right notes but not necessarily in the right order.
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