Winning Ways Back At The Barn

BRENDAN Sellan scored the first Basingstoke Bison hat-trick of the season, as the Herd beat the visiting Bristol Pitbulls last Saturday.

It was a thrilling come from behind victory, as they won 5-4 in sudden death overtime, after being 4-1 down early in the second period.

The game had started so well for the home side as they took the lead at 3:51. Sellan on the left wing, found Adam Harding behind the net and he fed Luke Spadafora to snipe the puck home.

Bristol replied almost immediately as Bayley Harewood scored in the seventh minute.

A minute later, the visitors struck again as Caly Robertson skated down the right wing and crossed for Cameron Hamill to poke home at the back post.

The home side looked to hit back, as Bristol man of the match Harry Thomas was called into action and denied both Will Stead and Stuart Mogg.

However, it was Bristol who made it 3-1 as John Dunbar skated past one Bison defenceman and slotted home at 11:48.

The Pitbulls continued to pile on the pressure thanks to a couple of powerplays as Harewood and Jake Bricknell both forced excellent saves from Max Wright.

The Herd then finished the period on their own powerplay, which saw Sellan crash a rocket shot off the crossbar but it remained 3-1 at the first break.

It took Bristol just 84 seconds of the second session to extend their lead to three goals, as Bricknell scored with a lovely wrap around.

The Bison hauled themselves back into the contest thanks to a powerplay strike from Sellan, after he was found by Harding.

This spurred the Herd on and Zach Shankar, Tyton Cathcart and Tom Relf all forced the Bristol netminder to make saves.

The lead was then reduced to one at 34:06, after Sellan was found by Spadafora.

Soon after, Bristol’s Robertson had a breakaway chance which was saved by Wright and then straight up the other end of the rink, Evan Nauth was denied by Thomas, as it ended 4-3 at the end of the second period.

The Bison had the better of the early part of the final session thanks to a couple of powerplays and roared on by the home fans they kept going.

Mogg hit the post with a blue line shot with nine minutes left and then Liam Morris fed Hallam Wilson, but his top shelf shot was saved.

The Bison then got their deserved equaliser at 54:03. Sellan won the puck on the right wing and found Spadafora in the slot to tip home, much to the delight of the Herd faithful.

After this both sides had chances, but with no further goals the game went into overtime.

In the first 40 seconds Shankar forced a save out of Thomas.

The home side then scored the winner at 61:16, as Spadafora found Bison man of the match Sellan in the slot, his first shot was saved, but he made no mistake with the rebound.

He produced a great celebration on the ice as he secured his first ever professional hat-trick. 

The previous night again on home ice, the Bison and Hull Seahawks shared the first period 0-0.

It was the home side who came closest to scoring as Will Stead was denied twice by the pipework.

Hull thought they had opened the scoring at 21:46, but it was disallowed.

At the midway point of the period, the Bison picked up their only penalties of the night, but both at the same time as Mogg and Nauth went to the sin bin.

The Herd produced a brilliant penalty kill, but just as it finished Emil Svec made full use of the extra space on the ice to skate in and score.

The lead was doubled at 34:54 as a nice three man breakout saw Jordan Stallard score from close range.

Hull completed an excellent second period as Josh Hodgkinson fired in from the blue line.

The final period saw few clear cut chances, but Bison man of the match Stuart Mogg did go close as he stepped in from the blue line.

Then in the final minute of the game Hull’s man of the match Aleksanteri Heiskanen produced two super saves, as he denied Shankar on a breakaway and then Spadafora with the rebound.

This made sure the Finnish shot stopper recorded a 27 shot shut-out.

This weekend the Bison are on their travels to the league leaders Swindon Wildcats on Saturday night (6.30pm) and then on Sunday (4.15pm) are at home to the Solway Sharks.