BASINGSTOKE Bison extended their winning home run to four games with a 5-4 victory over the visiting Milton Keynes Lightning.

A bumper crowd enjoyed a very open and entertaining game from start to finish.

The Herd were without the services of three defencemen Joe Baird, Brendan Baird and Matt Selby, along with forward Grant Rounding.

Ryan Watt made his debut and had one of a number of chances from the home side early on.

The visitors also went close with two breakaways from Blaz Emersic and Jordan Cownie, but Dean Skinns saved them both.

The Bison opened the scoring at 13:37 from man-of-the-match Aaron Connolly, as he netted Miroslav Vantroba’s rebound.

MK levelled things just before the break as they took three seconds to score on their first powerplay of the night from Lewis Hook.

The teams then swapped goal in the first three minutes of the second session.

Connolly with a lovely top shelf finish netted his second on the night, which was soon cancelled out by an Emersic strike.

Connolly so nearly completed his hat-trick, but Jordan Hedley gloved his shot away.

The home side re-took the lead again with a lovely passing move between Doug Sheppard and Tomas Karpov, which set-up Joe Greener who scored at the second attempt.

It then became 4-2 as Greener robbed a MK defencemen and skated down the rink alone and slotted home.

At this point the visitors called a time-out and then had a couple of chances, before they pulled a goal back in the final minute of the session from Adam Carr.

A penalty right on the second period buzzer against Grant McPherson gave the Bison a powerplay to start the final 20 minutes.

They made good use of it, as Karpov scored from close range to make it 5-3.

The home side then ran into penalty trouble, as Vantroba took a tripping penalty much to the displeasure of the home fans.

Referee Tim Pickett endeared himself even more to the Bison faithful when he dismissed defenceman Kurt Reynolds.

This was for a very tame looking checking from behind on Ross Bowers, who got cut in the process hence why the call was so harsh.

During the powerplay, the Herd defence was reduced even further when Chris Wiggins cross checked Ciaran Long in the goal crease and Vantroba retaliated with his own. So both players went to the sin bin.

This left the home defence with Declan Balmer the only recognised defender so forwards Michael Wales, Stuart Mogg and Long took on defensive duties as the penalties were killed.

Nicky Chinn then took a massive elbow in the face from Milan Kostourek which went unpunished, but when Watt just got a touch on a Lightning forward he departed to the sin bin.

The visitors made use of the powerplay as Leigh Jamieson scored from the right wing at 55:35.

This set-up a grandstand finish, but neither side added to their tally as the Bison held on for another memorable victory, which sent most of the big crowd home happy.

Tonight, the Bison are on their travels to face the Sheffield Steeldogs (face-off 5.30pm).