London Racers 1, Basingstoke Bison 4
THE BISON recorded their first away win of the season in their first-ever visit to Alexandra Palace on Friday night. American Matt Reid made an impressive debut for the Wella-backed side, while fellow import Chris Slater sat out the game as he started a two-match suspension for being thrown-out for head butting Jeff Burgoyne in Cardiff the previous weekend.
The Bison iced Milton Keynes Lightning's British stars Michael Wales and Chris McEwen. McEwen played one season in the Basingstoke junior set-up and scored the winning goal to earn the under-14 Bison the English crown in 1997.
The first period saw the Bison show why they're the top penalty-killers in the league when Phil Roy took an early tripping call.
Despite a lot of pressure from the home side, the visitors took the lead at 15:23 through Blake Sorensen, finishing a move involving Dave Geris and Martin Filip.
Bison man-of-the-match Curtis Cruickshank kept the Racers out until he was beaten in controversial style for Racers' equaliser.
Referee Nigel Boniface had blown his whistle and players on both sides stopped playing except for debutant Zoran Kozic, who moved up from London's farm team Haringey. The Eastern European slotted the puck home at 31:15 and, much to the amazement of the Bison players, the goal was given.
The home side were given a further lifeline four minutes later as Joe Ciccarello picked up a slashing penalty. But, seconds after returning, the Bison forward put the visitors in the lead.
The final period saw Martin Filip score with an excellent back-handed shot at 45:2 from Reid as the forward picked up a point in his debut.
The game was ended as a contest when Ciccarello netted his second goal of the night on the powerplay at 57:50.
Bison player-coach Steve Moria said: "Curtis kept us in the game for the first two periods but we dominated the final period and it was nice to get our first road win of the season."
Scoring, Racers: Kozic 1+0, Konsti 0+1; Bison: Ciccarello 2+0, Sorensen, Filip 1+1, Takala 0+2, Geris, Moria, Reid, Vahanen 0+1. Shots on goal: Hogberg 24; Cruickshank 31, Skinns 0. Penalties: Bison 6min, Racers 4.
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