CIARAN Long scored the game winning penalty shot, as Basingstoke Bison won their top-of-the-table clash 2-1, against the visiting Telford Tigers.

In a tight game from start to finish, former Bison man Joe Miller tested Dean Skinns early on, and Joe Greener did likewise with Thomas Murdy.

The home side took the lead at 5:46, thanks to some individual magic from man-of-the-match Tomas Karpov, with a great solo goal.

The teams continued to trade chances until the first buzzer, but the Bison still led 1-0.

The second session saw Herd man Aaron Connolly denied in the opening minute. Then Telford had a good powerplay, after Kurt Reynolds departed to sin bin for the Bison’s first penalty.

The home side then hit back as Karpov fed Andy Melachrino and then Connolly and Nicky Chinn combined, but Telford’s man-of-the-match Murdy kept them out.

A Karpov low rocket once again tested the Tigers’ cage man, before Telford equalised.

Jonathan Weaver fed the puck out of his end zone and from a Sam Zajac blue line shot, Nathan Salem scored in a goal mouth scramble at 34:51.

With no more scoring in the session, the game was all square going into the final 20 minutes.

Tigers’ import Jason Silverthorn went close in the opening minute of the final period, before Zajac was then forced to haul down Melachrino.

The Tigers killed the powerplay and then get one of their own, in which Martin Ondrej’s blue line shot was sticked away by Skinns.

Miller and Doug Sheppard then forced saves, as both sides looked for the winner.

With the tension building, the final powerplay of the night went to Telford, with three minutes left.

Once again the excellent Bison penalty kill stood tall and the game was still tied 1-1 at the final buzzer.

So for the first time this season, a Herd game went into sudden death overtime.

The Tigers had most of the chances in the extra five minutes, with Melachrino going closest to getting the winner for the Bison.

With no scoring after 65 minutes, the game was then decided by a penalty shoot-out with it being a best-of-three to start with.

Telford shot first and the opener from Scott McKenzie went under Skinns, but stopped in the goal crease.

Joe Rand was then denied with a pad save, as was Peter Szabo as he skated out wide to his right before cutting in.

The fourth shooter was Basingstoke’s Long and having skated up centre ice he turned his back on the goalie and flicked the puck in on his back hand.

This left former Bison man Miller needing to score to keep the hopes of his side alive, but thanks to the pads of Skinns, he failed to, and the Herd maintained their perfect start to the campaign.

The Bison are next in action on Saturday, with a mouth watering local derby against another of their title rivals Guildford Flames (face-off 6.30pm).

Scoring; Bison: Karpov 1+0, Reynolds 0+1; Tigers: Salem 1+0, Silverthorn, Zajac 0+1. Shots on Goal: Skinns 36, Murdy 25. Penalties: Bison 8 min, Tigers 16.