Mindy magic sees honours even

By Graham Merry »

MINDY Kieras scored the game tying goal 3.4 seconds from time as the Basingstoke Bison drew with the visiting Milton Keynes Lightning 5-5, in their latest Planet Ice Shield group game on Thursday night.

The Lithuanian defencemen struck after the Herd had pulled their netminder Tom Annetts for an extra skater in the final minute.

Earlier in the contest, the Bison scored the only goal of the first period thanks to Joe Ciccarello.

That lead was doubled after the break as Chris Wiggins fired into the roof of the net at 21:15, before the Lightning opened their account as the Brittle brothers combined with Adam scoring from Luke.

A neat inter change of passes between Kurt Reynolds and Steve Moria saw the later make it 3-1 at 45:40.

However, the contest was then turned on its head as Leigh Jamieson, Lukas Zatopek and Ross Green all scored in the space of three minutes to give MK a 4-3 lead.

Back came the Bison as Kieras’ long defence splitting pass saw Ollie Bronnimann convert a great breakaway strike, only for Lightning’s Jamieson to make it 5-4.

So it was left to Kieras right at the death to make sure the game ended as a tie - thanks to his late strike.

See Monday’s Gazette for a full report.