Basingstoke player coach Eric Braff has told skysports.com that the Bison are lucky to have a goalie as good as Kevin Reiter.
Bison coach impressed by American stopper
Basingstoke player coach Eric Braff has told
skysports.com that the Bison are lucky to have a goalie as good as Kevin Reiter.
Reiter turned in another amazing performance in the 5-3 win against Nottingham on Saturday, stopping 42 out of 45 shots.
The victory over the Panthers came after Reiter powered the Bison to a 4-1 win over Coventry, making an incredible 65 saves in his previous game.
Coventry head coach Paul Thompson was in awe of Reiter's performance against the Blaze and questioned what a goalie of his calibre was doing in the Elite League.
Thompson didn't have the answer to his question, and neither does Braff.
Stayed cool
"To be honest, I don't know," Braff told
skysports.com.
"He's a great goalie and a great person and he's doing wondrous things for us right now. I think he's definitely opened the gates for next year for pretty much wherever he wants to go.
"To tell you the truth, I think we lucked out in getting him here."
Reiter has led the Bison to three wins in their last four games, facing a total of 189 shots during the spell.
The American netminder has stayed cool while the Bison went through a change in ownership and the roster has continued to shrink.
Braff has followed suit, trying to make his team stay as calm and as possible - a strategy that paid off in the comeback win against the Panthers.
"When we were down 3-0 there was no yelling or getting upset," Braff added.
Discipline
"We knew as a team we were capable of playing better and guys just picked up their acts in the second and third periods.
"Overall we're not as skilled a team as Nottingham so we have to work harder to get wins. We battled like there was no tomorrow and sure enough the result came."
The Bison couldn't repeat their heroics on Sunday as they went down 4-1 in Cardiff, but Braff was pleased with his team's self discipline.
"We only took two penalties on Sunday and I took them both!" Braff joked.
"Having a guy in the box makes you use that much more energy and you can't do that when you've only got 10 or 11 guys on the bench."
