THE Basingstoke Bison beat English Premier League leaders Guildford Flames for the third time this season, thanks to a 6-4 victory on Saturday night.

The victory closes the gap at the top-of-the-table to just two points as the title race hots up.

The Herd won the opening session thanks to three times goals in the space of 94 seconds from Joe Miller, Miroslav Vantroba and man-of-the-match Tomas Karpov.

The first came after Joe Greener found Miller from behind the net and then Vantroba’s blue liner blast doubled the advantage.

Karpov then added a third from close range at 18:04, after a good pass from Greener.

The Bison increased their advantage to 4-0, as Greener netted with a delightful finish after good work down the wing by Zach Sullivan. This signalled the end of James Hadfield’s evening as Mark Lee took over in goal

The Flames hauled themselves back into the contest on the powerplay, as Tom Duggan converted a pass from man-of-the-match Rick Plant at 29:41.

The visitors add a second from David Longstaff, but a superb individual effort from Andy Melachrino made it 5-2 at the second buzzer.

Guildford scored the first goal of the final 20 minutes as Plant was the provider for Jozef Kohut.

The Flames looked to have set-up a grandstand finish after Longstaff scored on the powerplay to reduce the lead to one in the final two minutes

However, the Bison hit back 42 seconds later, as Aaron Connolly fired home to make sure of the win at 58:57.

The Herd are next in action at home to Telford on Saturday (face-off 6.30pm).