Bees come up just short in hard fought encounter

Final Score: Basingstoke Bison 3-1 Bracknell Bees

The Bees points-scoring run came to an end in a hard-fought encounter in Hampshire.

In spite of out-shooting their hosts 37 to 28, the Bees found Bison goalie Stephen Wall in fantastic form and suffered the curse of conceding two short-handed goals for the second game running.

Bees started strongly, but in spite of being on a powerplay found themselves a goal down at 11:39, when Bison captain Nicky Chinn scored with a one-time shot from the slot after aggressive penalty kill pressure in Bracknell's own zone.

The Bees again created more the chances in the second, Wall making a superb double save on Michael Bowman before Viktor Kubenko fired home from the top of the left circle, beneath Tom Annetts' pads.

For all their attacking dominance, the Bees seemed to lack the confident spirit of recent fixtures, until the third period when they kicked up a gear. Wall again made impressive save after impressive save, including two great ones from close range on Lukas Smital and Martin Masa.

With time running down and the Bees killing a penalty, Andy Munroe fed the puck to Shaun Thompson to set up a 2 on 1 breakaway. Thompson passed across the slot to his wide open partner, Matt Foord, who made no mistake in firing past Wall.

The Bees' hopes were raised, helped by a powerplay opportunity with a little over 90 seconds left. Annetts was pulled in favour of an extra attacker, but unfortunately at 59:30 a Marcel Petran clearance from the Bison zone trickled up the ice and into the Bees empty net.

Shaun Thompson picked up the Bees man of the match award for the second game running, but incredibly Wall was overlooked for Basingstoke in favour of Ollie Bronniman.

With Peterborough picking up a vital point in Slough and Swindon losing heavily in Milton Keynes, the Bees will be hoping for a quick return to winning ways in the battle for play offs qualification at their next tough battle against the in-form Sheffield Steeldogs.