Basingstoke Buffalo 1, Streatham Redskins 4

THE BASINGSTOKE Buffalo ended their home play-off campaign in disappointing style as they lost to visitors Streatham Redskins on Saturday night.

In an entertaining game, the home side threw everything at Redskins' man-of-the-match netminder Adam Noctor, but were unable to claw back a 3-0 deficit.

The final session was just 25 seconds old when Neil Leary set up Leigh Baker, but he failed to get his shot away cleanly.

After Drew Campbell was denied with one chance, seconds later he forced a shot home at 41:27 from a Dean Phillimore assist.

Soon after, Leary and Baker and Campbell tested the visiting goalie and then Mark Jordan saw his shot go inches wide.

Streatham had their first chance of the session after more than 10 minutes. Steve Paris broke away and his shot went under netminder Vicky Robbins, but defenceman Ollie Beckwith stopped the puck with his stick before it crossed the line.

That was a let-off but, within a minute, Paris again left the home defence standing and this time he made no mistake with his shot to make it 4-1 at 52:01.

The home side had the best chance of the rest of the game when a great reflex stop by Noctor denied Baker as he one-timed a Jordan cross.

Earlier in the contest, the first two penalties of the game against the Buffalo proved costly as Gary Clark joined Campbell in the sin bin at 15:56.

This gave Streatham 48 seconds of a two-man advantage and the visitors scored twice.

The first goal was netted by Ed Koral, who put away a Lee Brears rebound.

It became 2-0 after an excellent move involving Brears and Robert Blazowski saw Wayne Trunchion score from close range.

The home side opened the second session on the powerplay, with Clark going close and, soon after, Jordan tested Noctor.

The Streatham goalie had a moment of good fortune at 29:28 as he fumbled Simon Beere's shot and, falling backwards, got his stick to the puck before it crossed the line.

Buffalo player-of-the-game Robbins denied Brears at full stretch, but was not so lucky when Blazowski netted Streatham's third with some nice stickwork by the post.

Despite a lot of pressure in the final period, the home side were unable to pull back the deficit and they had to settle for their first defeat against the Londoners this season.

Home coach Ed Campbell said: "We didn't play as well as we can today, and I think a lot of that has to do with the two close games with Invicta where the guys worked their socks off.

"Today we never really got going until the third period and then their goalie made some big saves to keep us out."

Scoring, Buffalo: Campbell 1+0, Phillimore 0+1; Redskins: Blazowski 1+1, Koral, Trunchion, Paris 1+0, Brears 0+3, Carnegy, Maslak, Walsh 0+1. Shots on goal: Robbins 40, Noctor 36 Penalties: Buffalo 12min, Redskins 10.

Basingstoke Bison forward Greg Owen helped Great Britain remain in division one of the world championships with a 12-0 thrashing of Israel on Sunday afternoon in Amiens, France.

The Herd's Brit collected two assists in a game which saw Nottingham's Matt Myers, with four goals, and Belfast's Colin Shields, with three, lead the scoring.

Singles from David Clarke, Mike Ellis, Davis Phillips, Russell Cowley and Paul Moran completed the win.

This was the first GB win in the five-match series following an opening day 4-3 defeat by Hungary, in which Owen got an assist. A narrow 1-0 reverse by hosts France, and an 8-0 thumping by promoted Germany followed.

Owen and former Bison Ellis both scored in the fourth game - a 4-2 loss at the hands of Japan, to set up a winner-takes-all clash on the final day where GB ran out easy winners and Israel were relegated to division two.

First published: Tuesday, May 2, 2006