AARON CONNOLLY scored both goals for the Basingstoke Bison as they completed, an early season league and cup double over Swindon Wildcats.

The Gazette sponsored player struck in the first and last periods, to secure a 2-1 victory over the visitors in a very entertaining clash.

The Herd still minus Matt Selby and Andy Melachrino, started brightly and took the lead at 1:35, as Connolly scored, after good spade work from Joe Rand.

Soon after, Tomas Karpov so nearly made it two, after Michael Wales and Joe Baird had also gone close.

The first powerplay of the night, went to the Bison as Kurt Reynolds was caught in the face by Ollie Betteridge.

It proved to be an easy penalty kill for the visitors and then the Wildcats should have equalised when Jonas Hoog, all alone in the slot, was found by a stray pass.

However, Dean Skinns made a superb pad save to deny the Swedish sharp-shooter and then was called upon to make two excellent saves in Swindon’s first powerplay of the night.

As the period came to a close, Rand was denied twice by the excellent Stevie Lyle and then Karpov saw his shot gloved over.

The home side would have felt they should have led by more at the first break and wished it even more so, when Swindon levelled things on 23 minutes exactly.

An attempted pass out of the Bison defensive zone, went straight to Hoog and he found Tomasz Malasinski to fire home.

The game then became an end-to-end affair with both sides looking for the go-ahead goal and a smart save from Lyle denied the lively Grant Rounding, while Swindon’s Jan Kostal went close in the final seconds of the session.

The visitors started the final period with 55 seconds left on a Ciaran Long penalty.

The Herd killed this off and took the lead at 46:03, thanks to a great solo strike from Connolly.

The home side so nearly made it three, as Doug Sheppard fed Long and Lyle falling backwards with an out stretched stick saved his shot.

Then a Rounding shot dropped into the goal crease, but before Wales or Rounding could get to the rebound, Callum Buglass was able to clear the danger.

With 4:11 left on the clock, Long went down in front of the Swindon net from a high check from Shane Moore.

The defenceman was dismissed on a match penalty for checking to the head by referee Roman Szucs, who had a much better game than the week before in Basingstoke.

The penalty was later downgraded to a 5+game penalty after Long was able to play before the final buzzer.

This gave the Herd a five minute powerplay and they piled on the pressure, which saw Baird ping a shot off the pipework in the final minute.

With 17 seconds left, Rounding took a tripping penalty, which saw Swindon earn a face-off in the Bison end and enabled them to pull their goalie.

So it was a tense finish to the game, with the final action being Rand firing the puck into the empty net, just after the final buzzer.

Tonight, the Bison face a tough trip to top-of-the-table Telford Tigers (face-off 5.30pm).