THE Basingstoke Bison had a weekend to forget as they picked up just one point from their triple header.  It was a real shame as they missed an opportunity to move into the play-off slots. 


The first game last Friday saw them suffer a 3-0 home defeat to the Romford Raiders. The home side just could not find a way past Romford’s man of the match Cole Ceci, as he turned away all 33 shots he faced on the night.


The Essex side scored one goal in each period. This was thanks to Brandon Ayliffe, Ewan Hill and Jake Sylvester, the last being an empty netter. Brendan Baird was the Bison man of the match.


The Bison then made the long trip up to Scotland along with a good many of the Bison faithful, to take on the Solway Sharks in the first of two games north of the border.


They looked to be heading for victory leading 4-1 after 40 minutes, only to suffer a 5-4 in overtime loss.


An even first period saw honours even at the first break 1-1.


The Herd took the lead in the ninth minute as Liam Morris scored his first goal of the season, as he finished a move which involved Baird and Hallam Wilson.


The Sharks drew level a couple of minutes later, thanks to a top corner strike from Carter Hamill.


The second session belonged to the Bison as Adam Harding joined the top line and he started a move which saw Luke Spadafora from the right wing find Brendan Sellan in the slot to score at 24:58.


The visitors then ran into penalty trouble as Harding joined Reece Cochrane in the sin bin, which gave Solway 92 seconds of a two man advantage.


What followed was a superb 5 on 3 penalty kill from the Bison backed by some great saves from man of the match Max Wright.


Soon after, the Herd extended their lead as Morris found Zack Milton and his cross ice pass allowed the unmarked Tom Relf to rifle the puck home.


The visitors extended their lead to three as Harding from the corner found Spadafora at the back post and he jabbed the puck home at 38:33.


From watching the after match interview with the Sharks head coach, the team were read the riot act at the second break. After this they came out all guns blazing for the final 20 minutes.


Wright was called upon early on to save a breakaway from Scott Henderson.


Then on the first powerplay of the period, Solway struck as Joe Coulter scored whilst lying on the ice as the home side crashed the net.


The mood in the building immediately changed and just 27 seconds later the Sharks scored again as Jonny Yantsis made the most of a screen in front of him to fire home to a make it 4-3.


Soon after, a Solway powerplay saw Bison have a great chance to score shorthanded. This was thanks to a two man breakaway from Evan Nauth and Morris. However, Jordan Marr came up with a superb stop against Morris to set up a frantic finish.


The Bison were then given their final powerplay of the game at 56:43, but did little with it and Solway’s Kell Beattie went close shorthanded.


As the penalty ran out, it left the home side with just 77 seconds to grab an equaliser.


They piled on the pressure and from a goal mouth scramble man of the match Dylan Stewart netted at 59:02.


With no further scoring, the game went into overtime and Solway won the opening face-off and moved the puck down the ice. 


Liam Stenton drew Wright to his near post and then skated around the back of the net and fed Stewart to hit the half empty cage for the overtime winner at 60:26.


The following night once again Solway took on the Bison and it proved to an even more action packed encounter.


The Sharks started the better of the two teams and took the lead on the first powerplay of the night as Jordan Buesa slotted under Wright in a goal mouth scramble.


Man of the match Spadafora hit the post on a Bison powerplay as the game slowly started to get feistier.


Solway added a second goal at 17:59 as a nice move ended up with Hamill firing home.


As the first period came to an end the Herd’s Adam Harding caught Hamill in the face with the stick which earned him 2+2 for high sticks and he also received an additional two minutes for unsportmanlike conduct.


This meant the Bison started the second sessions with three powerplays to kill. The first two they did successfully, before Hamill converted Buesa’s rebound to make it 3-0.


After this the penalties started to flow as Ty Cathcart took exception to a hit on Sellan and departed for roughing with Buesa.


After Solway’s Anderson crashed the net, he was slashed by Shankar for getting to close to the goalie, Wright then picked up an unsportmanlike penalty after a collision with Hamill.  


The Bison killed off the penalties and scored on their own powerplay from Spadafora’s shot, which went through the goal crease and in the net at a 90 degree angle.  The reason the goal was given was because it was deemed the net had been pushed off by the home side. 


The game continued to look like it would boil over again and did at the second buzzer. The upshot of this was that the Bison’s Liam Morris was dismissed for spearing, while Shankar and Buesa got two minutes each.


Solway made the most of the powerplay as Hamill completed his hat-trick.


After this the Bison had their best spell of the game as Milton and Wilson were denied in quick succession by home side’s man of the match Calum Hepburn.


Then Will Stead with a lovely shot from just inside the blue line hit the roof of the net to make it 4-2 at 46:59.


The game then boiled over again two minutes later, which ended up with Anderson dismissed for unsportmanlike conduct and nine other players in the sin bin. The four from the Bison were Stead, Wilson, Milton and Shankar, the first two for roughing and second two were for five minutes for fighting.


With 2:56 left on the clock, the Herd called a time out and pulled their netminder, which backfired as 10 seconds later Stewart released Buesa and he skated clear and popped the puck into the empty net to complete the 5-2 victory.  


This weekend coming Basingstoke are at home to Hull on Saturday night (6.30pm), before a trip to Peterborough on Sunday (5.30pm).