THE BASINGSTOKE Bison will take a one goal lead into tonight’s second leg of their English Premier League play-off quarter-final, after they won at Altrincham against the Manchester Phoenix 5-4 last night.

The home side were minus import Michal Psurny, but the Herd welcomed back both Tomas Karpov and Declan Balmer.

The home side started the better and made the most of the first powerplay of the night as Johan Burlin scored at 4:19, but a minute later the Bison equalised from Ciaran Long.

The Phoenix re-took the lead in the ninth minute from Ben Wood with a shot from the right wing and they then made it 3-1 as Frankie Bakrlik scored on the powerplay.

The Herd hit a purple patch in the middle of the second session as they scored three times in the space of 97 seconds.

Doug Sheppard netted the first goal at 30:50 and then fellow Canadian Joe Rand grabbed a brace, his first being 15 seconds after Sheppard’s strike.

The Phoenix made sure honours were level at the end of the second session, as despite being shorthanded after Bakrlik went to the sin bin for high sticks, his fellow import Robin Kovar managed to score.

The only goal of the final session came from the Bison’s leading scorer Long at 49:39 as the Herd started the defence of their play-off crown in fine style.

The return leg tonight takes place at the Basingstoke Arena with a 5.30pm face-off.

Meanwhile, also tonight in Oxford, the Basingstoke Buffalo will face the Slough Jets in the final of the National Ice Hockey League Cup which starts at 6pm.

This was after they came back from 2-0 down to beat the Peterborough Islanders 4-2 last night, also in Oxford.