Pitbulls Fall 5-3 To The Bison On Home Ice

By Xanthe Boursier-Gazzard

The Bristol Drive North Pitbulls faced a 5-3 defeat at home in the Pound on Saturday night as they took on the first game of their double header against the Basingstoke Bison.

As the puck dropped for the first period, the game proved to be of high intensity within the opening minutes, with penalties given to both teams for fighting as Cam Hamill and Alex Sampford went gloves off just two minutes before Jake Bricknell and Ty Cathcart could do the same at the other end of the ice. Despite the tense start, Bayley Harewood broke the deadlock just before the fifteen-minute mark off the back of Max Wigfield’s pass to give the home side the one-goal advantage.

The Bison responded ten minutes into the second period as Sampford capitalised on the building pressure from the visitors to equalise; however, it wasn’t long before John Dunbar could gift the lead back to the Pitbulls, taking an opportunity on the power play and threading a shot through traffic in front of the net. The away side gained the lead within the final three minutes of the period, scoring two in quick succession, the first coming from Will Stead on the power play and the second from Brendan Sellan with less than thirty seconds remaining.

Caly Robertson was able to bring back a level scoreline as he got the breakaway shorthanded, delivering the puck past the pads of Ben Clarke-Leach following a back-and-forth puck chase between the two teams. Despite this, the Bison took back their goal advantage as Hallam Wilson took the pass from Stead to get the fourth, which was swiftly chased 18 seconds later by Adam Harding, who struck a shot to the back of the net of Tommy Nappier’s net to put the away team ahead at a scoreline of 5-3 to take the two points.