The TSI World Bees had a good start last weekend as on Saturday they made the trip to Basingstoke to face the Bison in a local derby game. The Bees found themselves having to chase the Bison early on due to Zack Milton finding the back of the Bees goal at 12:34, with assists awarded to George Norcliffe and Alex Sampford. George Norcliffe wanted to extend on his assist he had already gotten on the night and had his own success of a goal timed at 19:45 with assists awarded to Zack Milton and Marcel Balaz. The Bees then had a real push to keep up with the Bison and at 19:54 Brendan Walkom managed to get to the back of the Bison net with 6 seconds left of the first period with an assist awarded to Dominik Gabaj. In the opening period the Bees were faced with 8 penalty minutes. 

Bees had a strong start to the second period but found Matt Smital being tested quite frequently by the Bison. Words were exchanged between Bees player JJ Pitchley and Bison’s Jay King which ended in penalties given to both teams.  At 28:45, Ryan Webb found himself able to equalise the game with an assist awarded to JJ Pitchley. This got the Bees back into the game and started to test the Bison’s defence more in their efforts to try to secure the 2 points on offer. A first was achieved for Bees Harry Harcup as at 36:32 he secured his first Bees goal with assists awarded to Dan Rose and Juha Lindgren and this saw the Bees take the lead for the first time on the night. The Bison were quick to react to this and a goal from George Norcliffe at 37:24 saw the game equalised.

Going into the third period tensions were high but Bison were eager to push for the points on offer. Brendan Baird was the one to give the Bison the lead with an unassisted goal timed at 49:21 and this gave the Bison that extra bit of confidence to finish the game and take the points. However, Brendan Walkom caused heartbreak for the Bison fans as he equalised the game and forced Bison to go to overtime at 52:21. Assists for Brendan’s goal were awarded to Joe Baird and Luke Jackson. The Bees had 1 point in the bag however Gael Lubwele secured the extra point for the Bison and left the Bees leaving Basingstoke with 1 point and the game ending 5-4.

The Bees then welcomed the Knights to the Slough Ice Arena on Sunday last week for another tense game like we saw the previous weekend at Planet Ice Leeds. Kieran Brown was quick to open the scoring on the night with a goal just 22 seconds into the first period with assists awarded to Mac Howlett and Matt Haywood. Then at 04:47 Thomas Barry got the Knight’s second goal of the evening with assists awarded to Ethan Hehir and Carter Hamil, but then just 10 seconds later Mac Howlett gave Leeds a 3-0 lead just under 5 minutes into the game with assists awarded to Kieran Brown and Bailey Perre. This gave Leeds a huge advantage throughout the first period and left the Bees chasing but at 07:49 the Bees managed to get on the scoreboard with a goal from Dominik Gabaj and was assisted by Will Stead and Brendan Walkom.

Neither team managed to get the puck to the back of either goal in the second period but we did see some great saves made by Sam Gospel in his efforts to stop the Bees trying to make any sort of comeback, to at least secure 1 point. The Bees came out in the third period hungry to get anything they could out of this game and were putting the effort in to try and make a comeback happen. At 49:21 Will Stead got to the back of Sam Gospel’s net and made the game 2-3 in the Bees’ last push to take away at least a point from the game. The Bees made the decision after a timeout to pull Adam Goss from the net and have a player advantage to try close the gap on the scoreboard but Matt Haywood soon put those ideas out of the Bees heads and scored an empty net goal at 59:59 with an assist going to Cole Shudra to end the game and leave the score Bees 2-4 Knights.