Sheffield Steelers 4, Basingstoke Bison 2

THE Bison lost their opening game of the play-offs in Sheffield on Wednesday night as the Steelers, under the new direction of coach Dave Whistle, continued their rejuvenated end to the season.

That is not to say that the Herd did not give a good account of themselves as they led 2-1 at the halfway stage of the game.

The Steelers opened the scoring on the powerplay after Jerry Galway earned his second rest of the night in the sin bin, man-of-the-match Kent Simpson touching home a Ron Shudra blue-line shot at 8:34.

The Herd hit back almost immediately as, 25 seconds later, Edijs Brahmanis finished a nice move involving Tony Redmond and Brett Larson to make it 1-1.

Soon after, Bison man-of-the-match Doug Sheppard went close, before Sheffield again applied pressure, with Mark Dutiaume, Martin Masa and Jonas Lennartsson all forcing saves from Bison goalie Mark Bernard.

The home side had another powerplay before the period break, and Bison Greg Chambers took the full force of Shudra's shot on his helmet.

The visitors got off to a dream start in the second session as Sheppard fired home a Chambers rebound after just 14 seconds to make it 2-1.

The Herd then looked on top until midway through the period, when referee Andy Carson called two penalties in quick succession.

The first was on captain Sheppard at 30:10 and, 39 seconds later, Maltby was dismissed on a five-plus-game penalty for high sticks on Dutiaume after he caught the Steeler at a face-off.

This gave the home side 81 seconds of a two-man advantage which the Bison killed off as the home side failed to get a single shot on goal.

That still left more than three minutes of the Maltby penalty and, after Lennartsson and former Bison Jason Hewitt had gone close, Sheffield equalised at 35:58 when Martin Masa touched home a Peron shot.

That gave the home side the lift they were looking for and Simpson, with an unassisted strike, made it 3-2 in the final two minutes of the period.

The final session was the closest of the game in terms of shots, and the Bison were given their only powerplay of the night at 42:21 when Jason Robinson departed for elbowing.

The Bison's best chance of the period saw British duo Greg Owen and Redmond combine, with Owen re-directing his team-mate's shot just wide.

The Steelers gave themselves some breathing space at 55:27 as Peron made it 4-2 with a blistering shot.

With 72 seconds left, the Bison called a time-out, but they were unable to add to their tally.

Bison boss Mark Bernard said: "Once again, we have run them close in their building, but we are disappointed. We have nothing to show for it. That is done now and we move on to the next game."

Last night, the Bison had a chance of quick revenge against the Steelers as the South Yorkshire side were in town, in both team's second play-off game.

In action at the same time were the other two teams in group B as the Nottingham Panthers travelled to the Newcastle Vipers. On Saturday, Nottingham drew 3-3 against the visiting Vipers in their opening game.

Scoring, Steelers: Simpson 2+0, Peron, Masa 1+1, Shudra 0+2, Lennartsson, Dutiaume, Thomas 0+1. Bison: Brahmanis, Sheppard 1+0, Larson, Redmond, Chambers 0+1.

Shots on goal: Lehman 22, Bernard 52.

Penalties: Steelers 2min, Bison 35.

First published: Monday, March 20, 2006