THE Basingstoke Bison were beaten in a sudden death penalty shoot-out, by the visiting Peterborough Phantoms last Saturday.


The Herd welcomed back Hallam Wilson to their line-up, but were still without captain George Norcliffe.


It was the Bison who dominated the first period and in the opening three minutes Luke Spadafora, Zack Milton, Brendan Sellan and Alex Sampford all forced Peterborough’s man of the match Hayden Lavigne into saves.


Then very much against the run of play, the Phantoms scored in the sixth minute from Cameron Hough.


The Bison replied with more chances from Sellan, followed by a goal mouth scramble as Sampford went close.


This continued as the home side’s Will Stead from behind the net fed Liam Morris, but his effort was saved.


The Herd’s Reece Cochrane then tried his luck from the blue line, but his shot was plucked out of the air by Lavigne.


This continued to be the story of the session and despite posting 31 shots, somehow the Herd went in at the first break trailing 1-0.


Just 49 seconds into the second period, the Bison levelled things as a superb reverse pass from Basingstoke’s man of the match Zach Shankar found Sellan and he rifled home.


The Herd then nearly took the lead after a lovely steal by Sellan set-up Adam Harding, but he was denied.


Peterborough then made it 2-1 as Luke Ferrara scored from close range at 26:10.


The Bison replied as a lovely passing move between Sampford and Stead saw Milton score.


Soon after, Peterborough’s Hough was denied by a great save by Max Wright on the powerplay.


Then shorthanded Wilson broke away and looked to have beaten Lavigne all ends up, only for his shot to hit the post.


However, the Bison did take the lead at 33:52, thanks to Brendan Baird’s first goal of the season from a blue line bullet.


This meant the Herd led 3-2 going to the dressing room at the second break.


After chances for both teams early in the third period, disaster struck for the home side on the powerplay, as Dillon Lawrence released Ferrara and he skated clear and scored shorthanded.


The Phantoms then made it 4-3 as Janne Laakkonen found Lawrence at the back door to slot home at 45:29


The Bison now looking for an equaliser saw Sellan denied a couple of times and then the forward line of Milton, Stead and Sampford produced a lot of good pressure.


This was rewarded on their next shift as Ty Cathcart’s shot from the blue line, saw the rebound put away by Stead at 55:40.


After this there were no clear cut chances as the game went into overtime.


It was the Bison who had the better of the extra five minutes with Sampford, Sellan and Milton all forcing saves, but with no goals the game moved to a penalty shoot-out.


It started with a best of three, with the Phantoms shooting first and Ralfs Circenis made no mistake.


Zack Milton replied with a lovely finish for the Bison.


Then the next four shooters, Ferrara and Hough for Peterborough and Sellan and Spadafora for the Herd all failed to find the net.


So it went into sudden death with the Bison now shooting first and much to the delight of the home fans Milton once again scored as he fired through the legs of the netminder.


Lawrence replied for the visitors with a back hand finish into the roof of the net.


Adam Harding was next up to shoot, but could only find the pad of Lavigne.


Lawrence returned to the ice as you are allowed to do once the shoot-out has gone to sudden death and produced another superb back hand finish to win the game for the Phantoms and take the extra point.


On Sunday night in Telford, the Bison led 3-1 in the second period only to end up losing 6-4.


In an even first period, the Herd led at the break thanks to a great breakaway strike from Bison man of the match Milton.


Telford levelled things up at 21:11 thanks to Brynley Capps as he netted at the back post.


The visitors replied with two goals in the space of two minutes, the first came on the powerplay as Shankar buried the rebound from a Sellan shot,


They then made it 3-1 as Sampford from the left corner found Milton in the slot to score.


Just 62 seconds later, Telford pulled a goal back on the powerplay, as Rhodes Mitchell-King’s blue line shot hit the net.


They then took the lead by 38:05 thanks to a brace from David Thomson.


The Tigers made it four unanswered goals, as their man of the match Patrick Brown netted 29 seconds before the second buzzer.


The Bison reduced the lead to one at 46:07, as Sellan scored from the slot after Ty Cathcart’s back hand shot came back off the netminder.


A few minutes later, a Stuart Mogg rush to the net was stopped on the goal line, before it was cleared.


It was left to Brown to complete the match scoring at 54:42.


This weekend the Bison have two home games which starts with a visit from the Hull Seahawks (7.30pm) on Friday night, followed by another home game on Saturday (6.30pm) against the Bristol Pitbulls.


Then on Thursday, February 19 the Herd are at home again against the Milton Keynes Lightning which starts at 7.30pm.