THE Basingstoke Bison’s seven game winning streak on home ice came to end as they lost 4-2 to the visiting Telford Tigers on Saturday night.

However, the saving grace for the Herd was that both their title rivals also lost, so they remained one point clear at the top of the English Premier League.

Saturday’s game against the Tigers exploded into life in the final 20 minutes after only one goal had been scored in the first 40 minutes.

Nathan Salem opened the scoring as the Tigers scored on a five-on-four powerplay, this after the Herd had killed off 41 seconds of a two man advantage, with both Carl Graham and Joe Baird in the sin bin.

There was then a goal rush at the start of the final session, as four times the red light was flashed in the opening five minutes.

Miika Kivranta made it 2-0 to the Tigers, as he was first player to react to Matthew Maynard’s rebound at 41:03.

Just 12 seconds later, the Bison opened their account as Nicky Chinn deflected Miroslav Vantroba’s blue line shot.

A minute later, the Tigers roared again as they made it 3-1, as Kivranta scored a again, after good spade work from Timo Kuuluvainen.

The Bison then made it 3-2 at 44:46, after Andy Melachrino’s shot from the left wing looped over Tigers man-of-the-match netminder Declan Ryan and into the net.

The home side then piled on the pressure, but the Tigers were always dangerous on the break and Bison’s man-of-the-match Dean Skins made a couple of excellent saves.

With 52 seconds left on the clock, the home side called a time-out and pulled their netminder.

This move back fired as former Bison forward Joe Miller fed Scott McKenzie, who hit the empty net with 35.3 seconds left to secure the victory.

Tonight, Basingstoke are on the road for a big clash with title rivals the Manchester Phoenix.