BASINGSTOKE Bison will be looking to climb back up the English Premier League table this weekend after slipping to fourth following last Saturday’s loss against Peterborough Phantoms.

There are only four EPL games this weekend, and the Herd are involved in two of them.

The first is an away match against Milton Keynes Lightning on Saturday night (face-off 7pm), followed by a trip to the league’s penalty kings, Sheffield Steeldogs (face-off 5.30pm), on Sunday.

A four-point weekend would take the Herd back to second spot, but they will once again be without their Great Britain under-20 stars Matt Selby, Declan Balmer and Cameron Wynn.

They could also be missing top defenceman Miroslav Vantroba, who picked up a match penalty for butt ending in the loss against Peterborough.

The club has sent in a video of the incident to back their case that the Slovak did not commit the offence, so hopefully the player will not be banned for two games, which is the normal suspension for such an offence.

If he does pick up a two-game ban, the second match of his suspension will be against the Lightning on Saturday.

On the plus side, the Bison’s top British forward, Joe Greener, is back from his three-game ban.

When the Herd were last at the Milton Keynes Arena back in October, they lost 6-4.

MK were in league action last night against Swindon, and like the Herd have three players away on GB under-20 duty, netminder Jordan Hedley and forwards Lewis Hook and Jordan Cownie.

Looking ahead to the MK game, Bison player/coach Doug Sheppard said: “Both teams have a few players missing, but like us they are a hard-working team and we will have to out-work them if we want to get the win.

“We also have to make sure we stay out of the penalty box as they have a very good powerplay.”

On Sunday night, the Herd are at Ice Sheffield to face the hard-hitting Steeldogs, looking to repeat their 5-2 success in the middle of October.

Last Sunday, Sheffield narrowly lost on home ice to visiting Guildford.

Games in Yorkshire are always tough and the Bison will have to be ready for a battle if they are to get the result they need against a side who currently sit eighth in the table.

Sheppard said: “We got a result there last time, so we know how to win in their building and if we stick to our game we will be able to do this again.”

The Bison have been rocked with some bad news from Estonia, where Great Britain under-20 captain and Herd defenceman Selby has been ruled out of the rest of the tournament.

The 19-year-old experienced concussion-like symptoms after GB’s second victory in the competition on Monday.

Selby was checked by team and tournament medical staff and underwent blood tests and a CAT scan, which revealed no other underlying issues.

Following International Ice Hockey Federation concussion protocol, the blue liner must be symptom free for seven days before resuming on-ice activities. However, the team captain will remain with the squad for the rest of the tournament.

It is a shame for the teenager, who has only just returned from an injury sustained in the Bison’s first visit of the season to Bracknell.

After two games, GB are top of the standings in Estonia after they followed up their 4-2 success over the Netherlands on Sunday with a 5-4 victory against Lithuania the next day.

Bison forward and GB man-of-the-match Wynn hauled his side back into the Lithuania game with a shorthand-ed marker after they trailed 2-0 at the first break.

Further goals from Ivan Antonov, Sam Duggan, Cownie and Bobby Chamberlain secured the victory.

In their 4-2 success against the Netherlands, Antonov scored shorthanded, with Herd defenceman Balmer in the penalty box.

The other three goals came from Ollie Betteridge, Cownie and Chamberlain.

Tomorrow they play Korea (2.30pm) with their last game on Saturday (6pm) when they face hosts Estonia.