The Basingstoke Bison came back from 4-2 down to win a nine-goal thriller away at the Swindon Wildcats on Saturday night.


It was a superb victory for the Herd and no doubt delighted their travelling fans as it was only their second game back after two years away.


The Bison started the game well and took the lead in the fifth minute as Brendan Sellan converted a pass from Zack Milton.


Swindon hit back and Josh Shaw made sure the sides went in level at the first break.


The Herd took just 97 seconds of a physical second session to lead again, after Will Stead finished a move which involved Stuart Mogg and man of the match Zak Shankar.


Once again Swindon replied as Daryl Lipsey made sure it was all square going into the final 20 minutes.


The last session saw Swindon make it 4-2 by 52:28 as Glenn Billing on the powerplay and Edgars Bebris were both on target.


Soon after, an altercation in the Bison goal crease saw Herd netminder Max Wright pick up a fighting major, while Swindon’s Josh Shaw was given a fighting major and two minutes for goaltender interference and goalie Renny Marr received a 5+game for fighting and two minutes for leaving the crease.


This gave the Bison a two man advantage and they converted this in just five seconds as Milton netted from Shankar and Mogg.


Now with a one man advantage the Herd tied the game up with another powerplay strike at 54:24 as Mogg scored assisted by Shankar and Sellan.


Then 90 seconds later, the Bison made it 5-4 as Milton grabbed the game winner on the powerplay to complete an amazing comeback, as Mogg and Stead picked up the helpers.


After this the Herd held on to record a superb victory in their first weekend back in action.


The previous night, which was the Bison’s home game in Swindon, they ended up on the wrong end of an 8-2 scoreline.


The Wildcats took the first period 2-0 as defencemen Ben O’Connor and Tyler Plews were on target.


Aaron Nell added a third before the Bison swapped their netminders as Will Bray replaced Wright.


Soon after, Swindon added a fourth from Chris Jones, before the Bison scored their first goal in over two years at 34:46, as man of the match Adam Harding finished off a move which involved Tom Relf and Luke Spadafora.


The final session saw the Wildcats net four unanswered goals from Tomasz Malasinski, Tyler Watkins, Nell and Ryan Wells.


It was left to the Herd to complete the scoreline as Alex Sampford fired home a pass from Liam Morris.


After splitting their first pre-season series the Bison continue their build up to the new season with a double header at the Bristol Pitbulls this weekend.


The away game is on Saturday and has a 7pm face-off, while on Sunday the home game in Bristol starts at 5.15pm.