THERE was no Happy New Year for Basingstoke Bison as they lost 3-2 in overtime at Swindon Wildcats on New Year’s Day.

The Herd had hoped to avenge a 2-1 defeat five days earlier on home ice against their Wiltshire rivals, but it was not to be as Swindon chalked up their tenth win on the trot.

The Bison had the better of the opening 20 minutes as Tomas Karpov and man-of-the-match Aaron Connolly forced early saves from Stevie Lyle.

The home side then found their feet as Jonas Hoog and Steve Nell gave Dean Skinns work to do in the Bison net.

The Herd took the lead at 11:29 after Ciaran Long scored from close range as he deflected home Miroslav Vantroba’s shot.

The visitors took their advantage to the dressing room at the first buzzer and early in the second session Skinns produced a superb save to deny Tomasz Malasinski.

The same player then turned provider for the equaliser as Jonas Hoog was left with an easy tap-in at 31:55.

The sides then swapped powerplay chances, but the score remained level after 40 minutes.

The Bison were the first to strike in the final period, as Joe Greener put away Doug Sheppard’s rebound at 45:09.

The Wildcats took three minutes to tie the game thanks to a great solo strike from Hoog.

As the game entered the final two minutes, Hoog took a penalty and the Bison ended the game on the powerplay, but were unable to grab the winner.

They started overtime still with the extra man and Karpov forced a save out of Lyle.

Then at 63:39 the Wildcats took another penalty, as Shane Moore departed for slashing.

It looked a great opportunity for the Herd to win the game, but instead Malasinski broke down the ice and even if Skinns saved his shot.

Jan Kostal put away the rebound for the winner, just 10 seconds into the penalty.

Tough games for the Bison are coming thick and fast at the moment as they are next in action on Saturday when league leaders Telford Tigers are the visitors to Basingstoke. The game has a 6.30pm face-off.