THE Basingstoke Bison’s title hopes were dented on Sunday night, as they lost 5-2 at the Peterborough Phantoms.

The home side were forced to ice just three imports as forward Erik Piatak was suspended.

The Phantoms scored the only goal of the opening session, as Marc Levers deflected in Marcel Petran’s blue line shot on the powerplay.

The former Bison player doubled the Phantoms advantage at 23:57 and the home side then add two more from Luke Ferrara and Petran to lead 4-0.

A shorthanded strike from Ciaran Long in the final two minutes of the session gave the Bison some hope.

With seven minutes left in the contest, the Herd pulled another goal back from Joe Greener.

The Bison then had a great spell of pressure and pulled their netminder Dean Skinns.

However, a bench penalty on the Herd for abuse at 58:56, saw Skinns return as Peterborough had a powerplay.

This they converted in the space of 11 seconds, as Petran’s rocket shot hit the back of the net to complete the 5-2 win.

The Bison will now look to bounce back to winning ways when they entertain the Guildford Flames on Wednesday evening in the first-leg of the EPL Cup semi-final (face-off 7.45pm).