THE Basingstoke Bison wrapped up their home campaign with a high-scoring contest against the visiting Telford Tigers in front of a full house.


The Herd were without the unavailable netminder Max Wright, so Swindon’s Ben Clarke-Leach returned between the pipes.


The Tigers took just 41 seconds to take the lead, as David Thomson netted at the back post after being found by a lovely cross-ice pass from Eric Henderson.


The home side replied with some good chances, before Zach Shankar went from one end of the rink to the other and fired in.


The Tigers took the lead again at 8:07, as Tate Shudra fed Scott McKenzie to score.


Once again, the Bison equalised, after Shankar netted his second of the game with a backhand finish on the power play.


The goals kept on coming in the first session, and Telford took the lead again, as Shudra struck from the hash marks with a shot through a screen of players.


A minute later, the Tigers made it 4-2, after Patrick Brown’s shot hit the back of the home netminder and trickled over the line.


The Bison hit back and cut the lead in half, as Zack Milton found Alex Sampford at the face-off dots, and he fired home at 15:25.


It took the Tigers just 25 seconds to restore their two-goal lead after Danny Rose’s shot to the back post was redirected home by McKenzie.


There was still time for Telford to make it 6-3 at the first break, thanks to Harry Ferguson’s wrap-around finish. 


The Tigers were the first to pounce in the second period, as their man of the match Deaken Fielder, scored his first goal of the season, after Ben Clarke-Leach had made a great save to deny Ferguson, but had no chance with the rebound.


Soon after, Will Stead had a great breakaway effort saved by Ben Norton.   


The home side then had a power play in which Adam Harding and George Norcliffe both forced Norton into action.


Then on their next man advantage, the Bison scored their fourth of the game, as Milton found Sellan and he skated around the back of the net and fed Harding to fire home.


The Herd were then given another power play, but this time it was Telford who scored shorthanded as Henderson robbed Luke Spadafora at the Herd’s blue line and skated into the score, to make it 8-4 at the second break.


The final period saw both sides enjoy a spell of a two-man advantage, but neither could score.


The only goal of the last 20 minutes came from the Bison at 54:48 and this was while they were shorthanded.


Bison man of the match, Stuart Mogg, fired the puck into the corner, it was collected by Sellan, and his lovely set-up saw Milton from the slot complete the match scoring.


The following night in their final game of the season, the Herd travelled to Yorkshire to take on the Sheffield Steeldogs.


The home side opened the scoring in the second minute as Joonas Larinmaa slotted home.


The Bison replied as Luke Spadafora netted, assisted by Shankar and Hallam Wilson.


It took until 16 seconds from the end of the second period for Sheffield to edge in front again from Bair Gendunov.


The Steeldogs extended their lead to two at 45:01 as Gendunov netted again.


The Herd hauled themselves back into the contest as Milton and Harding combined for Will Stead to score.


It remained a one-goal game, and at 58:01 the Bison pulled the excellent Clarke-Leach, who had faced 51 shots as they looked to score an equaliser.


Unfortunately, nine seconds later Michael Danecko hit the empty net to complete the 4-2 win.


Tom Relf, who announced his retirement after the game, was the Bison man of the match, while Sheffield’s man of the match was Finley Williams.


A winless final weekend meant the Bison finished the first season of their new era at the bottom of the league, but on the plus side, ice hockey is back in Basingstoke and next season will be a lot different.


Canadian forward Brendan Sellan finished the season as the Bison’s leading goal scorer with 31 and also their top points man with 68.


Adam Harding was their top-scoring British forward with 18 goals, and the top points award went to Zack Milton with 40.


Looking back on the season, Bison head coach Jeff Flanagan said: “I felt we had a really good group of guys who stuck together throughout the campaign.”


“Despite finishing bottom, I felt we were competitive in nearly every game we played. Our defence was strong all season, but it was no secret we found it hard to score goals.”  


“Lastly I and the team would like to say a big thank you to all our loyal fans for their unwavering support.”