The Basingstoke Bison enjoyed a spooktacular Halloween weekend with two wins over the Romford Raiders.


Basingstoke Bison 5-3 Romford Raiders


The Bison got off to a howling start and opened the scoring at 8:13 after Mac Howlett’s shot came back of the pads of Romford’s netminder Owen Rider and AJ Macaulay buried the rebound.


The Herd doubled their lead on the powerplay as Sota Isogai did a lovely cross ice pass into the path of Howlett who fired home.


The Raiders pulled a goal back in the final minute of the first period as they scored a fortunate goal. Marco Pascale found the puck on the end of his stick from a lucky deflection, so the period ended 2-1 to the Bison.


The first big chance of the second period saw the Herd’s man of the match Ben Clarke-Leach produce a tombstone save to deny Jake Sylvester, within a minute the home side had made it 3-1 as Kyle Carruth with some tricky stick handling found Isogai at the back post and he treated the fans to a superb finish.


The Raiders reduced the lead to one as Sylvester scored on the powerplay and then Clarke-Leach made a spectacular save from Barret Kirwin right on the buzzer, denying Romford an equaliser.


The Raiders tied the game up inside the first two minutes of the final period from Max Lewis.


The Bison took the lead again at 53:29, as Brendan Sellan skated off the bench, received the puck just inside the blue line and fired through a screen of players.


With just under five minutes left in the contest, Romford’s Tjay Anderson ghosted in at the back post, but Clarke-Leach denied him.


The Raiders continued to press and then pulled their netminder in the final two minutes, only for this action to have a shocking consequence.


Bison’s Macaulay released George Norcliffe down the right wing and he unselfishly laid the puck back to trailing man Adam Harding, who slotted into the empty net to complete the 5-3 win.


Romford Raiders 4-5 (OT) Basingstoke Bison 


 


An even opening period saw the Raiders lead 1-0 at the first buzzer thanks to Anderson.


The Bison levelled things at 24:14 after Sellan found man of the match Adam Harding to score on an odd man rush.


Romford replied as Brandon Aycliffe netted only for the Herd’s Howlett to make it 2-2, as he made the most of Harding’s shot off the back board as he sniped the puck home.


A powerplay strike from Kirwin ensured the Raiders still led at the second break.


The Bison tied the game once more with only three minutes left as Isogai netted with a lovely back hand finish, only for the Raiders to score 10 seconds later from Leo Bacallao.


However, there was still time for the Herd to make it 4-4 as Macaulay fired in from the top of the circle exactly a minute later.


Romford were then given a late powerplay, but former Raider Ethan James stood tall and the game went into overtime.


The Herd completed their fangtastic Halloween weekend as Charlie Risk broke away and fed Farmer to net the game winner.


Next weekend, the Bison have back-to-back games against Solway.


The first one is on Saturday and starts at 7pm, while on Sunday the face-off is 5pm.