THE Basingstoke Bison suffered a heartbreaking penalty shoot-out loss last Sunday in Telford against the Tigers, writes Graham Merry.

The first period ended level after a goal from the Herd’s Aidan Doughty was cancelled out by Telford’s man of the match Jason Silverthorn.

The second session saw the Bison score twice as Marcel Balaz converted a Tom Banner pass and then Edgars Landsbergs netted on a delayed penalty.

The Tigers roared back in the final period with goals from Scott McKenzie and Rhodes Mitchell-King to force overtime.

The extra five minutes failed to split the teams, so the game went to a shoot-out.

Unfortunately for the Herd, the home side scored three of their first four shots from Vladmir Luka, McKenzie and Silverthorn, while only Doughty netted for the Herd as Balaz, Gael Lubwele and Zack Milton were all denied.

Teenage forward Ollie Hemmings-Maher was the Bison’s man of the match.

After the game Bison head coach Ashley Tait said: “I was really pleased with the way we played given we were short in defence without Josh Kelly and Liam Morris.”

The previous night on home ice the Herd were narrowly beaten 2-1 by the Sheffield Steeldogs in a very feisty affair.

The visitors took the lead in the fifth minute from Matt Bissonnette.

The Herd equalised within two minutes of the second session from man of the match Balaz, after a nice pass from Jay King.

The Steeldogs netted what proved to be the game-winner at 31:16 from Valdislavs Vulkanovs.

However, there was plenty more action to come in this game and in the final minute of the second period, the Herd’s Liam Morris was dismissed for a check to the head and Sheffield’s Charlie Thompson for spearing.

The final session saw the Bison pile on the pressure, hitting the pipework twice, but they could not find a way past the visitor’s man of the match Dmitri Zimozdra.

Talking about the loss Tait said: “We played okay, but gifted them both their goals.”

This Friday, November 18, (8pm) the Bison are at home to Milton Keynes and then on Saturday, (7pm) they travel to Bristol.

They will hope to have Alex Sampford back in their line-up, while Josh Kelly is doubtful and Liam Morris could well be suspended.

Looking ahead to the next two games Tait said: “It does not matter who we play as every game is tough, but if we play like we did against Telford, we will win more than we will lose.”