THE Basingstoke Bison had six players Zach Shankar, Luke Spadafora, Zack Milton, Will Stead, Hallam Wilson and Liam Morris all suspended last Saturday, so it was no surprise they lost 5-1 to the Hull Seahawks.


The Herd were also minus head coach Jeff Flanagan as the team went over the 50 penalty points marker. All the suspensions came from the bad tempered game the previous weekend in Solway.


This left the Bison with 11 skaters six of them forwards, while


Hull had 18 skaters of which 12 were forwards.


Despite this, the home side had the first shot on goal thanks to Alex Sampford in the second minute.


Hull had a few chances, but the defence stood firm and Max Wright made the saves when he needed to.


The Herd’s Brendan Sellan then hit the post, before the home side were unlucky to concede the opener.


Jack Musil’s shot was deflected into the net off a Bison player at 11:22.


Five minutes later, a lovely passing move saw Bobby Chamberlain and Johnny Cornell combine and man of the match Emil Svec applied the finish.


As the period came to a close the Bison went close to opening their account, but Adam Harding was denied at the near post and then Sellan forced a save in the final seconds.


The visitors took just 48 seconds of the middle session to extend their lead, thanks to Svec’s blue line bullet which flew into the top corner.


They continued to control the period, but were kept out by the hard working Bison team.


The Herd killed off a powerplay, the only one they conceded all night – a far cry from the last game in Solway.


The home side’s best chance so far fell to the very lively Evan Nauth.


Then with just 55 seconds left in the session, Hull made it 4-0 as Svec completed his hat-trick.


The last period opened with the home side’s George Norcliffe and Nauth being denied.


The Bison were then awarded their first powerplay of the night and made it pay, as man of the match Tom Relf picked up the puck on the boards, stepped past one player and fired home at 44:38.


Hull replied eight minutes later as they wrapped up the 5-1 win thanks to a lovely low strike from Cornell. 


On Sunday night in Peterborough, Spadafora and Wilson returned from their suspensions as they were banned for one game.


It was the Phantoms who started the better and Billy Thorpe opened the scoring in the fourth minute, after he ghosted in at the back post and converted a lovely pass from Luke Ferrara.


Peterborough doubled the advantage as Janne Laakkonen from behind the net found Dillon Lawrence and he beat Bison man of the match Wright.


The Bison hauled themselves back into the contest late in the period, as Sellan scored with a nice low shot which was assisted by Relf and Stuart Mogg.


The home side made it 3-1 at 22:09 as Cam Hough fired over the shoulder of Wright.


After some good Bison pressure, the Phantoms broke clear and man of the match Lawrence hit the roof of the net to make it 4-1 which is how it stayed to the second break.


Peterborough added a fifth just 28 seconds into the final period from Ferrara.


After this the Bison looked the more likely to score and Mogg released Adam Erskine with a great stretch pass and from behind the net fed the incoming Adam Harding who hit the roof of the net.


Going into the final 10 minutes of the game, the Herd scored a third on the powerplay, as Relf’s blue line shot came back off the pads of the netminder and George Norcliffe buried the rebound.


Just a minute later, the Bison were given another powerplay, but Peterborough killed this off and then took back control of the game as they ran out 5-3 winners


This weekend, the Bison welcome back all their suspended players, except for Shankar who returns on Sunday, as he got a four match ban, while the others got two.


They are in action three times, starting with a trip to Sheffield on Friday night (7.30pm). The follow evening at 6.30pm they are at home to the Solway Sharks and then on Sunday (5.30pm) they travel to Milton Keynes.