Individual News
16th of March 2008
The Basingstoke Bison are one game away from lifting their first piece of silverware since 2000.
The Herd travel to the Skydome on Tuesday night, for their biggest game of the season holding a two goal advantage from the first leg of the British Knockout Cup.
Standing in their way are the sharp shooting Coventry Blaze, with their high powered offence looking for their second trophy in a possible season treble, to add to their already captured league title.
However, the British Knockout Cup has proved a jinx for the West Midlands side as they lost in both the previous two finals to Sheffield and Cardiff.
In the first leg of this year's finale last Wednesday, saw a short staffed Bison once again show what true grit, sheer determination and a never say die attitude can achieve.
Basingstoke got off to a dream start as he took the lead after just 20 seconds with a brilliant flowing move as Greg Chambers surged into the Blaze end zone and fed Brad Cruikshank on the right wing, He fired to the puck across the face of the net where Greg Owen converted.
The visitors equalised as Adam Calder scored with a nice wrist shot from the right wing at 9:13 and then Dan Carlson edged the Blaze in front 2-1 shorthanded.
However, Coventry's chances of leading at the first buzzer were dashed with four seconds remaining, as Bison's Danny Stewart fired home from just inside the blue line.
The Herd then made it 3-2 at 30:58, thanks to Stewart again as he fired home after a lovely lay-back from Ryan Aldridge.
Then in the final period, the Bison scored their own shorthanded marker from Derek Campbell as he latched onto an Eric Braff pass and produced a great solo finish.
On Sunday night, the Bison recorded their second victory in five days over Coventry, this time in the Skydome in a bmibaby Elite League encounter.
Once again the Herd had to win the hard way coming from a goal down after Carlson opened the scoring, but by the first break Stewart's strike had levelled things.
A three goal blitz in the second session from Aldridge, Greg Wood and Chambers made it 4-1 and man-of-the-match netminder Curtis Cruickshank kept out 20 shots alone in the final session to make sure of the win, which puts the Herd back in the play-off hunt.
All eyes will now focus on Coventry again on Tuesday night and Bison head coach Ryan Aldridge knows his side are only halfway to lifting that so desired trophy.
Aldridge said: "We still have some work to do and for sure Coventry are a good team will throw everything at us. After all the problems this year in Basingstoke, the boys and the fans deserved a trophy, so we will go there and try and make it happen."
The Bison are set to be well supported as a large number of fans will be making the trip to the West Midlands, hoping to cheer their heroes to glory.
The Herd travel to the Skydome on Tuesday night, for their biggest game of the season holding a two goal advantage from the first leg of the British Knockout Cup.
Standing in their way are the sharp shooting Coventry Blaze, with their high powered offence looking for their second trophy in a possible season treble, to add to their already captured league title.
However, the British Knockout Cup has proved a jinx for the West Midlands side as they lost in both the previous two finals to Sheffield and Cardiff.
In the first leg of this year's finale last Wednesday, saw a short staffed Bison once again show what true grit, sheer determination and a never say die attitude can achieve.
Basingstoke got off to a dream start as he took the lead after just 20 seconds with a brilliant flowing move as Greg Chambers surged into the Blaze end zone and fed Brad Cruikshank on the right wing, He fired to the puck across the face of the net where Greg Owen converted.
The visitors equalised as Adam Calder scored with a nice wrist shot from the right wing at 9:13 and then Dan Carlson edged the Blaze in front 2-1 shorthanded.
However, Coventry's chances of leading at the first buzzer were dashed with four seconds remaining, as Bison's Danny Stewart fired home from just inside the blue line.
The Herd then made it 3-2 at 30:58, thanks to Stewart again as he fired home after a lovely lay-back from Ryan Aldridge.
Then in the final period, the Bison scored their own shorthanded marker from Derek Campbell as he latched onto an Eric Braff pass and produced a great solo finish.
On Sunday night, the Bison recorded their second victory in five days over Coventry, this time in the Skydome in a bmibaby Elite League encounter.
Once again the Herd had to win the hard way coming from a goal down after Carlson opened the scoring, but by the first break Stewart's strike had levelled things.
A three goal blitz in the second session from Aldridge, Greg Wood and Chambers made it 4-1 and man-of-the-match netminder Curtis Cruickshank kept out 20 shots alone in the final session to make sure of the win, which puts the Herd back in the play-off hunt.
All eyes will now focus on Coventry again on Tuesday night and Bison head coach Ryan Aldridge knows his side are only halfway to lifting that so desired trophy.
Aldridge said: "We still have some work to do and for sure Coventry are a good team will throw everything at us. After all the problems this year in Basingstoke, the boys and the fans deserved a trophy, so we will go there and try and make it happen."
The Bison are set to be well supported as a large number of fans will be making the trip to the West Midlands, hoping to cheer their heroes to glory.