Individual News
19th of February 2008
The first of two meeting in the space of five days for the Basingstoke Bison and Hull Stingrays will take place in Humberside on Wednesday night.
While both sides will be looking forward to Sunday's British Knockout Cup winner takes all showdown, this clash is in the bmibaby Elite League and each set of players will be keen to take first blood ahead of the semi-final second-leg battle.
The Herd also will be looking to repeat a penalty shoot out victory they recorded on their last visit, when Brad Cruikshank was their hero. That game saw a real goal feast and included a great Basingstoke comeback come back from 6-4 down to tie the match and send it into overtime.
As the regular season enters its final six weeks, the Bison are chasing points to make sure of the making the play-offs and after last weekend's disappointing nil return from three games.
It makes Wednesday's game that much more important, especially as Edinburgh entertaining Hull on Saturday. The Bison's current five point cushion could be eroded further by the Caps - if they don't get back to a winning stampede ways.
Basingstoke will be icing their normal 11 skaters, with Steve Thornton set to sit this game out and run the bench.
While Hull are also reduced to a shorter bench as forwards Lee Mitchell, Slava Koulikov and Brad Patterson are still missing from their line-up.
However, the Bison are taking nothing for granted and head coach Ryan Aldridge said: " This is a huge week in our season and we have the chance to make strides in making the play-offs as well as a cup final."
"We suffered some disappointing results last weekend, but now we have to get back to working hard as that is our major strength as a team. We need to get the jump back in our game and I am sure results will follow."
While both sides will be looking forward to Sunday's British Knockout Cup winner takes all showdown, this clash is in the bmibaby Elite League and each set of players will be keen to take first blood ahead of the semi-final second-leg battle.
The Herd also will be looking to repeat a penalty shoot out victory they recorded on their last visit, when Brad Cruikshank was their hero. That game saw a real goal feast and included a great Basingstoke comeback come back from 6-4 down to tie the match and send it into overtime.
As the regular season enters its final six weeks, the Bison are chasing points to make sure of the making the play-offs and after last weekend's disappointing nil return from three games.
It makes Wednesday's game that much more important, especially as Edinburgh entertaining Hull on Saturday. The Bison's current five point cushion could be eroded further by the Caps - if they don't get back to a winning stampede ways.
Basingstoke will be icing their normal 11 skaters, with Steve Thornton set to sit this game out and run the bench.
While Hull are also reduced to a shorter bench as forwards Lee Mitchell, Slava Koulikov and Brad Patterson are still missing from their line-up.
However, the Bison are taking nothing for granted and head coach Ryan Aldridge said: " This is a huge week in our season and we have the chance to make strides in making the play-offs as well as a cup final."
"We suffered some disappointing results last weekend, but now we have to get back to working hard as that is our major strength as a team. We need to get the jump back in our game and I am sure results will follow."