THE Basingstoke Bison suffered their first defeat in this season’s play-offs, as they lost in a thriller at the Milton Keynes Lightning 4-3.

The Herd arrived in Buckinghamshire hoping to record their first win in MK this season, but they were unable to fight their way back after shipping three goals in the first seven minutes.

Antti Holli opened the scoring with the home side’s first shot on goal at 2:22, as he beat Bison netminder Tomas Hiadlovsky one-on-one.

A minute later, the Lightning struck again, as Mikolaj Lopuski netted with what was their second attempt on goal.

Before the Herd had a chance to recover, a breakaway from Lopuski saw him set up Tom Carlon to make it 3-0.

At this point, Bison head coach Doug Sheppard called a time-out, but MK’s Michael Farn so nearly added a fourth.

The visitors finally got on the scoreboard at 12:32, as they netted on the powerplay with Frankie Bakrlik in the sin bin.

Ivan Antonov scored close in after good set-up play by Ciaran Long and Derek Roehl.

The Bison then ran into penalty trouble, as Dan Scott joined Kurt Reynolds in the sin bin.

The home side made the most of the two man advantage, as Bakrlik scored with a nice wrist shot at 15 minutes exactly.

The second session saw no goals for either side, but Luposki with a breakaway chance early on hit the pipework.

The Lightning had the better of the session, but this was helped by having three powerplays, but the Herd defence stood firm and they were unable to add to their tally.

Early in the final period, Craig Scott fired just wide after a nice feed from Bakrlik.

The Bison then clawed their way back into the contest, with two goals in as many minutes.

Joe Miller scored the first after nice play from Matt Towlaski and Tomas Karpov.

Then leading scorer Cairan Long netted at 48:26 to set up a grandstand finish.

The tension increased when Lightning import Bakrlik was dismissed for a check to the head.

This gave the Herd a great opportunity to tie the game with a five minute powerplay.

However, MK goalie Przemyslaw Odrobny, who was to face 29 shots in the final 20 minutes of the game, kept the Herd out, as Karpov, Long and Rand all had chances.

Another powerplay four minutes from time was also killed by MK.

Then with 82 seconds left in the game, the Bison pulled their netminder Tomas Hiadlovsky, but still they were unable to force an equaliser.

The victory for MK means they now head the group with four points, while the Bison and Swindon have two each all from two games.

Tonight (5.30pm), the Bison face Swindon on home ice, looking to bounce back to winning ways after their first loss in eight games.