BASINGSTOKE Bison hat-trick heroes Ciaran Long and Rene Jarolin shared the man of the match award, as they helped their side beat the visiting league leaders the Telford Tigers.

It was the first time in four attempts this season that the Herd has beaten the Tigers, and in the end they cruised to a 6-2 victory, despite being minus suspended import Derek Roehl.

However, it was not all plain sailing as Telford took the lead inside four minutes as Milan Kolena slotted home.

The first penalty of the night gave the Bison the chance to reply which they did with a superb strike from Long, from just outside the slot to level things at 11:03.

This is how it remained until the first buzzer with both sides having chances.

The Bison took a lead they were never to surrender at 25:54, after both Dan Davies and Yanya Antonov had been denied by the pads of Sam Gospel.

Jarolin picked up the loose puck skated around the back of the net and slammed it in by the other post.

The Bison then extended their lead on another powerplay. This was after Doug Clarkson took exception to being hit by Kurt Reynolds and grabbed the Herd defenceman around the neck.

The Bison punished this, as Long’s rocket shot flew into the top of the net.

Then with 50 seconds left in the session, Long was fed by Declan Balmer and his shot was saved, but Jarolin netted the rebound to make it 4-1.

However, just 21 seconds later, a nice pass from Clarkson allowed Jason Silverthorn to score Telford’s second of the game.

The first penalty of the final session saw Tomas Karpov called for tripping on Silverthorn and despite being shorthanded the home side extended their lead thanks to a great solo strike from Long, to complete his hat-trick Two minutes later, the Bison added goal number six on the powerplay as Jarolin fired home to also complete a hat-trick Soon after, the Herd so nearly scored a seventh as a lovely lay back from Jan Jarabek saw Aaron Connolly’s shot crash off the post.

From here the home side saw out the final minutes to pick up their first win of their triple header weekend and erase from their memory the loss in Milton Keynes the night before.

Bison head coach Doug Sheppard said: “I am pleased with the win and the difference tonight has been our special teams. We scored three powerplay goals this evening, while last night despite two lots of five minutes we failed to score one.”

Tonight, the Herd complete their busy weekend with a game in Blackpool against the Manchester Phoenix.