BASINGSTOKE Bison won their league series victory over Peterborough Phantoms, as they beat the visitors 4-3 on Saturday night.

The Herd were good value for their win as they outshot their opponents 51-26.

With Bison were minus Matt Selby, Grant Rounding and Brendan Baird for the game, but welcomed back captain Nicky Chinn.

After the sides exchanged early chances, a hit by the Herd’s Michael Wales on Luke Ferrara, saw Peterborough’s Greg Pick launch an attack on the Bison man.

This earned him four minutes for roughing, while Wales got two for kneeing.

The Herd looked good on the powerplay, and just as it ran out Chinn made the most of a goal mouth scramble to score at 9:38.

At this point it looked like the Bison would dominate the rest of the period, but instead Peterborough stormed back to take a 2-1 lead by the buzzer.

A great passing move saw Ferrara feed Marc Levers to score and then Milan Baranyk netted from close range.

It so very nearly became 3-1, but Darius Pliskauskas’ shot crashed off the post in the final minute of the session.

The very lively Stuart Mogg had the Bison’s first chance after the break and then had a hand in the equaliser as Chinn grabbed his second of the night at 27:35.

Soon after, Mogg was denied by the post and then a lovely inter-play between Doug Sheppard and Tomas Karpov, saw Karpov make it 3-2.

A late powerplay in the session saw Sheppard denied shorthanded after he latched onto a pass from Wales.

Then during the same powerplay the Phantoms found the pipework again, but trailed 3-2 at the break.

Just 13 seconds into the final period, Peterborough were given a man advantage and Dean Skinns produced a great double save to deny Levers and Martin Susters.

The Herd then got their own man advantage, which saw Karpov and Andy Melachrino both test the visitors’ man-of-the-match Janis Auzins.

As the game entered the final 10 minutes, the Herd fell foul of the referee again, but Bison man-of-the-match Joe Rand broke away shorthanded, but his shot was saved.

The visitors were not so lucky moments later, as an absolute rocket shot from Ciaran Long hit the net.

However, just as the powerplay ran out the Phantoms scored a third goal as Baranyk netted from close range.

Soon after, Peterborough were given another man advantage and their player/coach Slava Koulikov had a couple of chances.

With 52 seconds left, the visitors pulled their goalie for the extra skater, but were unable to force the game into overtime.

The Herd are in action again tonight when they head to local rivals Guildford (face-off 6pm).