LUCY Beal, Emily Harris and Travis Penny all scored braces as ice hockey’s Basingstoke under-12 Bison made the perfect start to 2014, with a 7-4 victory over visiting Swindon Jaguars.

The victory moved the young Herd up to fifth spot in the South A League.

Penny opened the scoring at 3:13.as he converted a pass from William Birch.

It became 2-0 as a rink long skate from Beal saw her fire over the shoulder of the Swindon netminder. The goal saw assists for Samuel Stephens and Oliver Reeves.

Swindon then opened their account, but the home side restored the two-goal advantage as player-of-the-match Harris put away Jared Angell’s fine pass.

The second period saw the visitors narrow the lead to 4-3, with an unassisted strike from Penny, the only goal for the Bison in the middle session.

The home side continued to dominate the final period, outshooting their visitors 13-3.

Harris restored the two-goal lead, only for Swindon to make it 5-4.

A shorthanded marker from Beal was assisted by Reeves and Harris as the home side took control and Ollie Waites completed the scoring a minute later.

Spirit-of-the-game winner Harry Brewer, was unlucky not to get on the scoresheet against Swindon.

On the previous night, in Guildford, Hallam Wilson netted a hat-trick, but it was all in vain as the under-16 Bison lost 8-3.

The game started really well for the visitors, as Wilson scored on the breakaway at 1:57. But Guildford levelled things 17 seconds later, through former Bison Richard Krogh.

The home side forced Bison netminder Jordan Lawday to make three quick close range saves as the score remained 1-1.

Lawday and Sam Compton then combined to get the puck up to Josh Richards whose shot was saved.

When Wilson passed the puck across the front of the Guildford goal, Chris Hocquingy was only denied by the pads of the home netminder.

The final play of the first period, saw Basingstoke’s Max Florey fire just wide.

Guildford scored twice in the first four minutes of the second session but the Bison pulled a goal back on the powerplay as an excellent pass from Steven Ratcliff was converted by Wilson.

Good link up play between Jason Cheesebrough and former Guildford player Hocquigny, started some good pressure. And the Bison made the most it as Wilson completed his hat-trick, after a pass from Spirit of the Game winner Conor Hutchinson.

The next six minutes saw end-to-end action and a shot from Joe Mitchell rebounded to Hutchinson only for him to be denied by the Guildford netminder.

The home side re-took the lead in the final four minutes of the session, before Florey went close to an equaliser just before the buzzer.

The final period belonged to Guildford, as they scored four unanswered goals, despite a number of excellent saves from Bison netminder Lawday.

The under-16 Bison are in action again on home ice on Sunday when they face Swindon-based Okanagan (face-off 4.40pm).

Straight after this game at around 6.30pm the under-18 Bison take on Swindon as well.