Saturday 21st December 2019, Face off 7pm, Doors Open 6pm

DJ Bertie’s Playlist

Tickets

Supporters club have a great range of activity including 50/50, Shirt of His Back, Ollie’s Grid, Chuck a Duck and merchandise for last-minute Christmas gifts!  We have some brand new Team Photo posters for sale too, so check them out.

Match preview

Basingstoke Bison make their first visit of the season to Planet Ice to face one of the in-form teams in the National Ice Hockey League, Smith Recycling Milton Keynes Lightning.

Lightning’s form over the past six games is only matched by league leaders Telford Tigers. Both have won five out of their last six encounters – Telford’s only loss was to…Lightning! By way of contrast Bison’s results have stuttered in recent weeks – last weekend they went down twice to bottom placed side, Leeds Chiefs home and away. Both games were played at Basingstoke because Leeds are still awaiting the opening of their new Elland Road rink.

Bison are nine points ahead of Lightning in fourth spot with Lewis Clifford’s men in eighth place and climbing the table. That gap would of course decrease in the event of a home win on Saturday.

Player-coach Ashley Tait leads the scoring for Bison with 36 points – 12 goals and 24 assists – while only Slovakian import Michael Klejna comes anywhere near that total with 34 points – 15 goals and 19 helpers.

Tait is of course a familiar name to Lightning fans as he played 21 games for MK during their initial Elite League season. He took over as player coach and director of hockey operations at Bison last season.

Another well-known name for MK fans is goalie Alex Mettam who spent four seasons with the club under coach Nick Poole. He is backed up by Daniel Weller-Evans.

Lightning will be hoping that the Liam Stewart-Robin Kovar pairing can continue to produce the dividends which are opening up opportunities for other players on the roster. Both Stewart and Kovar bagged two goals apiece last weekend with captain Russ Cowley matching them over the two games.

Neither Stewart or Kovar were with  MK when they narrowly lost out to an overtime goal by Adam Harding in the first game between the two combatants on November 2 in Basingstoke – Bison claiming a 3-2 victory.

Lightning will be looking to put that right on Saturday. Face of is 7pm and tickets can be obtained in advance by contacting Planet Ice on 01908 540020 and online here. On Sunday Bison and MK meet again in Hampshire where the action gets under way at 5.30pm.