BIRTHDAY boy Adam Harding scored twice as the Basingstoke Bison extended their winning run at home to three games, with a 4-2 victory over the Peterborough Phantoms last Saturday.


Import netminder Max Wright made his first start in goal since his return from injury, while the Herd were without Marcus Bradley, who had been called up to play for Great Britain under-20s in the World Championships in Bucharest.


The Bison started the better against the Phantoms as Alex Sampford and Reece Cochrane were denied in quick succession by Peterborough man of the match Hayden Lavigne. 


The visitors then took the lead as Cam Hough found the back of the net in the tenth minute.


Soon after, the Bison were given the first powerplay of the night, in which Harding, Will Stead and Sampford were all denied as the score remained 1-0 at the first buzzer.


Early on in the middle session, the Herd’s Wright made a great poke check on Ralfs Circenis’ breakaway.


The home side then tied things up as Brendan Baird and Evan Nauth combined for Brendan Sellan to score at 24:02.


The Phantoms hit back as a great pass from Janne Laakkonen saw Hough net.


However, the Bison made sure they went in level at the second interval, as man of the match Harding scored with the helpers going to Norcliffe and Zack Milton.


The Phantoms ran into penalty trouble at the start of the final period and the Herd made the most of a two man advantage as Luke Spadafora beat Lavigne at 44:52.


Ten minutes later, the home side deservedly doubled their lead as Harding capped a great birthday with his second of the night. With two minutes left in the game the Phantoms pulled their netminder but were unable to score as the Bison won 4-2.


On Sunday night in Leeds an even first period finished scoreless.


It was Leeds who broke the deadlock at 28:07, as Liam Hine fired a long pass down the right wing to Matt Bissonnette, who then found Owen Sobchak at the back post to score.


The home side doubled their lead with a really well worked goal, as Bowden Neely ghosted in at the back post to net.


The final session saw the Bison haul themselves back into the contest, as Spadafora buried the rebound from a Reece Cochrane blue line shot at 52:08 on the powerplay.


However, it took Leeds just 25 seconds to restore their two goal advantage, this was thanks to some individual magic from Brown.


They then wrapped up the 4-1 victory as Brown netted again from a pass from Bissonnette.


Basingstoke netminder Max Wright was the man of the match and he made a number of great saves in the 49 shots he faced.  


On New Year’s Day in Swindon a five goal blitz in the middle session enabled the Wildcats to cruise to a 6-2 victory.


Swindon had the better of the first 20 minutes in the contest, but they were only able to beat the Bison’s Dean Skinns once.


This came in the tenth minute as Sam Bullas from the right wing found the unmarked man of the match Ben O’Connor to hammer home.


The Bison started the second period the better, but once Swindon netted their second, they added four more in the space of nine minutes.


Tyler Watkins scored the first with a tap in at the far post and then Aaron Nell tipped home a O’Connor blue line shot.


A powerplay strike from Glen Billing made it 4-0 and then two minutes later, Swindon were awarded a penalty shot. This was after Luc Johnson was hooked by Ty Cathcart in the goal crease.


Johnson took the shot, but Skinns saved it with his pads.


Swindon added their fifth goal at 33:59 as a long pass from O’Conner was converted by Watkins and then 29 seconds later, Josh Shaw netted a rebound from Sam Godfrey’s blue line shot.


At this point Skinns headed to the bench to be replaced by Wright, while Tyler Perre took over in the Swindon net from Renny Marr.


With the game won, Swindon looked to have eased off the gas in the final period and the Bison took full advantage with two goals.


Their first came on the powerplay at 52:37 as Sellan fired over the shoulder of the home goalie after he was found by Spadafora after a nice drop pass from Zach Shankar.


Just 41 seconds later, man of the match Sellan grabbed his second as he scored at the back post after being found by Sampford, who had been released by a cross ice pass from Cathcart.


Next up for the Herd is a home game against Romford on Friday January 9, which will see Stanley Johnston play against the Bison after his signing last week.


After that Basingstoke have a double header away in Scotland at the Solway Sharks with the game on Saturday starting at 7pm then on Sunday at 5pm.