Bison 5 Milton Keynes Lightning 4
24/1/15
Milton Keynes Lightning have had a disappointing season
and currently languish only one place off the bottom of the EPL table. Was last
night’s encounter going to be a pushover for a resurgent Bison? Those who might
have thought so were in for a surprise as a determined MK traded blow for blow
with the Basingstoke. Credit must go to the home team for overcoming their blue
line shortages, as I shall relate.
P1 started in lively fashion, the two best chances of the
opening minutes both going to Lightning with breakaway one on ones from Blaz
Emersic and Jordan Cownie. Neither bore fruit as Dean “Deano” Skinns saved both
efforts. Bison continued to press and snatched the lead on 12 minutes with a
power play goal. Adam Carr tripped Tomas “Grandmaster” Karpov. Referee Pickett said “You’re
nicked, matey.” Into the slammer went the MK captain. Halfway through the 5 on
4 Marvellous Miroslav Vantroba fired in a shot which was saved by MK
goaltender, Jordan Hedley, but not frozen. The loose puck was rifled in by Aaron “Billy” Connolly whilst down on one knee and
falling. It was an extraordinary finish. 1-0 Bison.
As the 1st period drew to a close, Bison were
looking forward to going in a goal to the good after a very even period.
However, such hopes were to be dashed and exposed as a mere pipe dream. With
only 31 seconds remaining Long Ciaron Long tripped and referee Pickett threw him
into the penalty box. Not literally of course – now that would have been a
sight to see. It took Lightning only 3 seconds of the ensuing power play to
level it up. From the face off the puck broke to Lewis Hook who put it past
Skinns for 1-1. Ross Bowers and Jordan Cownie assisted.
The concession of the equaliser at the death caused much
annoyance amongst the Bison backers. The Bespectacled Youth’s glasses steamed
up, the Man of Steel bent a poker in frustration and the Desperate Dan lookalike
began to look more desperate. Bison now had to step up their game and blow the
visitors away, to kingdom come and out of the water with a dominant P2
performance. They achieved the dominant performance sure enough with an
impressive shot count of 23-11 and 3 goals, but the concession of 2 goals
including a soft one at the death of P2 meant that Lightning were very much in
it at 3-4 at the 2nd buzzer.
But I have jumped too far ahead. Let us go back to the
start of the period. Bison didn’t hang about. Doubtless smarting from their
misfortune at the end of P1, they prosecuted their attack of the MK goal with
drive and dash, zing and zip, vigour and vitality, agility and ability and in
just over a minute they had restored their lead. Set up by Michael “Muzzy”
Wales and Kurt “The Scissors” Reynolds, Aaron “Billy” Connolly skated in and
unleashed a wrist shot which beat Hedley all hands down. 2-1 Bison.
Alas for Bison the lead lasted only a minute. Hook and
Cownie combined to set up Emersic at the back door and all alone. He fired a
snap shot past a hapless and hopelessly hung out to dry Skinns and it was 2-2.
Bison were not disconsolate, downhearted nor even
discouraged by this setback and continued to besiege the MK goal. On 25 minutes
they retook the lead. Maple Leaf Doug Sheppard fed Karpov, who set off on a
typical one man assault against the opposition. He slipped through the D as
easily as a slender framed contortionist covered in grease and unleashed a shot
which was saved but not frozen. Cuddly Joe Greener stabbed it in. 3-2 Bison. 2 of Bison's 3 goals had come from rebounds off the goaltender, which goes to show that,
if you get men in front of the net, good things will happen.
Less than 2 minutes later Cuddly Joe was Johnny on the
spot to take advantage of a mid ice defensive blunder, latching on to a loosely
passed puck and finding himself in on goal. The Lightning D-men did not display
lightning movement. They couldn’t catch him and seemed to have a
“devil-may-care, what-the-hell, don’t-give-a-damn, couldn’t-care-less” attitude.
But I am sure they didn’t. It’s just that Joe was too quick. He barreled in and
slipped the puck over the line off his backhand. 4-2 Bison and a bit of
daylight between the two teams at last. In Block F, the far from furtive or
forlorn figures of Franz and Fritz, the flatulent frankfurter manufacturers
from Franfurt, flung forth fifty fabled filleted fresh fish, frog and fenugreek
flavoured frankfurters in celebration of the goal. (OK I admit it – I made them
up, but I couldn’t resist a bit of alliteration).
We were being treated to the usual array of perplexing
penalty calls. On 31 minutes Vantoba and Carr, both wearing 18, possibly over who was more entitled to wear the
number 18, were involved
in a fracas and were called for simultaneously cross checking, notwithstanding
that close observers hadn’t seen any such action from Marvellous Miro. Shouts
of protest over the condemnation of an innocent man exploded from the Bison
blocks. Most vociferous was our dear friend, the Howling Man. The absence of his
considered opinions, delivered in his own unique style of high volume and incomprehensibility,
would of course render our match day experience far less enjoyable. On this
occasion I did manage to make out the words “Get a pair” directed at referee
Pickett. Could he be inviting the official to embark on a course of hormone treatment
I wondered. Or perhaps he had shouted “Get a pear”. Why that? But no. The
Howling Man’s next outburst clarified everything for me as I heard the word “glasses”.
Angst, anguish and anger to no avail. Both Vantroba and Carr went to the box to
do their porridge.
The 2nd ended as had the 1st with
Lightning scoring in the final minute. For Bison this was an undesirable as the
scrapings from the inside of a navvy’s gumboot, not only because of the timing
of the goal but also because it was a soft one. Not a particularly good shot
from Carr became a good one as it passed through Skinns’s 5-hole and over the
line to reduce the arrears to a solitary goal. Lewis Christie and Petr Horava
picked up the assists.
Right on the buzzer Grant McPherson’s action caused the
referee to blow up. I don’t mean he exploded like a man who had had one wafer
thin mint too many. I mean he blew his whistle and called McPherson for charging.
This meant that Bison would start the 3rd with a power play. They
took full advantage with their second power play goal of the night 1:11 into
the 5 on 4. Vantroba fed Lumberjack Joe Rand, whose pass from behind the goal
line found Karpov. A lightning wrist shot undid the Lightning netman, the Czech chap
beating Hedley at the near post. Karpov celebrated the goal leaving Hedley to
carp about Karpov. 5-3 Bison.
On 45 minutes a highly controversial incident occurred.
Kurt “The Scissors” Reynolds hit Ross Bowers. The referee blew
his whistle. “Bed your belligerent butt on the bench in the bad boy’s box,
buddy,” he bellowed. The call was “checking from behind” and attracted a
penalty of 5 + match. The Bison players and backers alike were outraged, but
there was no appeal. It wasn’t trial by jury. It was summary justice from Mr.
Pickett and Reynolds had to make his way from the bench to the locker room. MK
now had a 5 minute power play. They had to take advantage. Bison, already thin
on the blue line with Rabbit’s Foot Joe Baird, Junior Baird and Matt “The Tank”
Selby not icing and Reynolds out of the game, had to draft in Stuart “The Cat”
Mogg and Long Ciaron Long as makeshift D-men. Could Lightning bag 2 or 3 goals
and throw the cat amongst the pigeons? No they couldn’t, not even one. Their lines proved as ineffectual as a
line composed of Albert Tatlock, Stan Ogden and Betty Turpin and Bison defended
the power play with ease. The pigeons must have been relieved.
However, the fat lady wasn’t singing yet and MK did
manage to drum up another goal on 55 minutes to set up an exciting finale. With
Ryan “You What?” Watt in the can for hooking, Leigh Jamieson’s shot deflected
off Skinns and over the line. It was another disappointment for Deano, but he
had pulled off a number of excellent saves earlier, including the two from one
on ones in the opening minutes of the period, as I have already related. Assist
to Horava. 5-4 Bison.
MK desperately tried to pull Hedley for a last hurrah 6
on 5 in the last minute, but as he was skating off, Bison retook possession and
he had to return to the crease. The opportunity was lost and Bison ran the
clock down without further drama. 2 points in the bag for them after an entertaining
game, packed full of incident. Hook and Connolly were anointed top bananas.
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