THE Basingstoke Bison maintained top spot of the English Premier League, after they beat the Slough Jets 4-2 on Sunday night.

A close opening period saw no goals and the Herd did well to kill a double powerplay.

The first goal in the contest did not arrive until 29:56, when leading Basingstoke goal scorer Tomas Karpov netted from his fellow Czech import Miroslav Vantroba.

Former Slough man Aaron Connolly then finished a nice move involving Doug Sheppard and Joe Rand to make it 2-0.

The home side hauled themselves back into the contest as Kamil Tvrdek scored, but a nice wrist shot finish from Sheppard, just 14 seconds later, saw the Bison ahead 3-1 at the second break.

The Jets looked to have set-up a tense finale, when Tvrdek scored his second of the night, after good work from Jamie Line.

However, their hopes were dealt a bitter blow when star import Ales Padelek was dismissed after he caught Ciaran Long in the face with his stick.

On the five minute powerplay, the Bison made the game safe as man-of-the-match Connolly scored his second of the night to make sure of the win.

The games are coming thick and fast for the Herd and they are next in action on Wednesday night, when they travel to Coventry to face the Milton Keynes Lightning in the first leg of the EPL Cup final.