Basingstoke Bison 5, Newcastle Vipers 1

THE Bison opened their home league campaign with an emphatic win over the visiting Newcastle Vipers on Saturday night.

The visitors' 100 per cent start to the season was shattered by a Herd in full stampede from start to finish.

In the first period, former Bison shot-stopper Curtis Cruickshank had to be at his best to keep the home side out with a string of good saves.

Hard-working Kevin Bergin was denied two early chances and then Doug Sheppard set up Greg Owen with a neat backhand pass, but again the goalie was equal to it.

Cruickshank then made a smart save as team-mate Brantt Myhres nearly pushed the puck under his own goalie, under pressure from the home forwards.

A real plus for the Bison was that the all-British forward line of Mark Galazzi, Greg Wood and Scott Spearing held their own all night, despite playing against the visitors' import firepower.

The trio nearly got a deserved goal at 14:35 when Galazzi released Spearing, but the Newcastle netminder produced a great pad save.

The second session started with the visitors wasting a glorious chance on the powerplay. Rob Wilson's shot came off the pad of Bison goalie Nick Boucher and Jonathan Weaver, instead of lifting the puck into the roof of the net, managed to chip it over the net and glass - like a bunker shot in golf.

Soon after, again with a man advantage, former Bison Jim Shepherd set up Weaver but, this time, Boucher blocked the shot.

The home side took the lead when Bergin won the puck in centre-ice off Pavol Mihalik and Duncan Dalmao sent a pin-point pass into the path of Bison man-of-the-match Blair Manning to fire home at 27.10.

Newcastle were given the chance to equalise on the powerplay, as Galazzi departed for holding, but the awesome Herd defence stood firm.

The Bison Brit then skated out of the sin-bin, latched on to a Dalmao pass and, with a reverse flick, found Brad Cruikshank on the right wing and he sent an unstoppable bullet into the roof of the net to make it 2-0.

The home side were now snake-charming against the Vipers and added a third with another screamer of a shot - this time from Eric Braff from the blue line.

Newcastle player-coach Rob Wilson tried to rally his ravaged army by taking the unusual step of calling a time-out with a minute left in the session.

It got no better for the visitors in the final period as the Bison continued their relentless pressure with Cruickshank having to save another one-on-on-one from Manning.

Boucher then did likewise as a rare Newcastle chance saw man-of-the-match Shepherd break away.

The Bison added a fourth goal at 48:57 when Manning danced his way down the right, leaving all in his wake, and his cross was dispatched by Bergin at the far post.

The Herd added a fifth goal on the power-play, as Mark DeSantis' blue-line shot was touched home by Bergin to bury the Vipers.

That was also the cue for Cruickshank to be replaced by Mark Lee in the Newcastle net.

The visitors did score a late consolation goal from Myhres with five minutes to go, but it went unnoticed as the home fans were already celebrating the victory.

Delighted Bison player-coach Sheppard said: "Tonight was a great team performance from all the guys, and we have got the win, which was very important and now gives us something to build on.

"I felt we could out-skate and out-work them and that proved to be the case and, as they tired, and we took advantage."

Scoring: Bison: Bergin 2+0, Manning 1+2, Cruikshank, Braff 1+0, Dalmao 0+3, Chambers 0+2, DeSantis, Galazzi 0+1; Vipers: Myhres 1+0, Shepherd, Weaver 0+1. Shots on goal: Boucher 30, Cruickshank 34, Lee 1. Penalties: Bison 16min, Vipers 16.