Romford Raiders Vs Basingstoke Bison 27th September 2009

Romford Raiders 1 Basingstoke Bison 6 (0-1 : 1-0 : 0-5)

Romford turned in another excellent 2 periods of hockey, but a poor final period saw them concede 5 unanswered goals, to give the scoreline a flattering look.

The game started with a scrap between Alastair Band and Chris Wiggins, which brought the crowd to life straight away. Another early penalty, on Tony Redmond, for slashing, gave Romford the first powerplay of the game, but the powerplay unit again failed to deliver, as they were unable to beat Tom Annetts. Both netminders were kept busy during the period, however, there was only 1 goal to show at the first break. It was the Bison who got it, as 2 Romford players collided mid-ice, and Andy Hemmings broke away, before setting up Ondrej Lauko, at 9.31.

The Bison ran into penalty trouble, right at the start of the second period, as Wiggins and Steve Moria found themselves in the bin. Although the Bison managed to kill off the Wiggins penalty, they were still short-handed, when Romford tied the game. Darren Cotton centred the puck from the left, and Dean Tonks was on hand to fire home his first goal in the Gold & Blue, at 23.17. Both teams took regular trips to the sin bin for the rest of the period, at referee Joy Tottman decided to call everything, which meant the game became dis-jointed, and there was no further scoring.

Romford were on the powerplay 3 minutes into the final period, but Tottman upset the home crowd with a harsh looking tripping called on Dallas Costanzo to even up the numbers. And it was during the period of 4-on-4 that the Bison took the lead again, when Steve Moria converted a pass from Mindaugas Kieras, at 44.05. Tottman incensed the home crowd further, at 47.02, with an even harsher interference call on Jon Sitko, that lead to the Bison's 3rd goal. Kieras was again the man with the assist, as his shot from the point was tipped in by Lauko. From then on it was all one way traffic, as Romford conceded a further 3 goals. Ollie Bronnimann made it 4-1, at 51.46, before Romford suffered the indignity of conceding twice on the same powerplay. Sam Zajac was sitting out for slashing, as Lauko completed his hat-trick, at 54.34, before Joe Ciccerello rounded of the scoring, at 55.48.

Man of the match for Romford was Andy Munroe, with Kurt Reynolds the Bison choice.