THE Basingstoke Bison extended their winning run to six games as they beat the visiting Telford Tigers 3-1 last Saturday.


The clash with the Tigers was a really tight encounter from start to finish.


The opening 20 minutes saw the sides swap chances with both netminders the Bison’s Max Wright and Tigers’ Ben Norton standing tall as the score remained 0-0 at the first break.


The Tigers so nearly scored with a deflected shot from the right, but Stuart Mogg was on hand to clear the danger at the back post early in the second period.


The deadlock was broken at 27:50, as Harry Ferguson with a wrap around beat Wright at his far post.


The Herd hit back as they hunted an equaliser and they scored it with a buzzer beating strike with just 0.1 second left on the clock.


Brendan Baird from the right point found Zack Milton on the opposite side. He fired in a shot which hit the post and Brendan Sellan was the first to react and poked the puck home.


The final period saw both teams looking for the go ahead goal and with every minute that ticked off the clock the tension grew.


The Bison’s George Norcliffe from close range was denied by a great save from Norton and then Telford’s Scott McKenzie hit the post in the final four minutes,


Just when the game looked like the match was heading in to overtime the puck deflected off a Telford skate into the path of man of the match Alex Sampford.


The British forward broke away and beat Norton with a beautiful back hand finish with just 69 seconds left.


At this point Telford called a time out and then quickly pulled their netminder, but the move back fired as Adam Harding from his own zone found the empty net at 59:48 to seal the deal and a 3-1 victory.


On Sunday night in Romford, the Raiders started the better and both Shaun Miller and Adam Laishman saw shots hit the pipework.


The home side then took the lead on the first powerplay of the night, as Miller set-up Jake Sylvester and he rifled home from the top of the circle.


The Bison responded as man of the match Tom Relf found Luke Spadafora and his top corner strike was plucked out of the air by Cole Ceci.


The Raiders doubled their advantage at 13:27 after a super skate from Miller saw him pass to Brandon Ayliffe and his back hand finish found the roof of the net.


Right on the first period buzzer Liam Morris was left in a heap and had to be helped off the ice.


He took no further part in the contest and being already minus import defenceman Zach Shankar it certainly did not help the Herd’s cause.


The Bison started the second period on the powerplay from the penalty from the hit on Morris and they piled on the pressure.


However they were unable to find the net with Norcliffe going the closest. 


Another Herd powerplay followed soon after and once again the visitors peppered the goal but to no avail.


The Bison came even closer in the 31st minute as Norcliffe hit the post.


Then a clinical counter attack from the Raiders saw a free flowing passing move as Tjay Anderson and Laishman combined and Sylvester supplied the finish to make it 3-0 at the second break.


The final period saw Romford extend their lead from a short handed goal as Laishman made the most of a deflected puck into his path.


Romford then wrapped up the 5-0 win as Anderson was found at the back post by Laishman.


Home netminder Ceci picked up their man of the match award for a 33-shot shut out.


This weekend, the Bison travel to Bristol on Saturday (7pm) then on Sunday they are at home against the Leeds Knights which has a new earlier face-off time of 4.15pm