BASINGSTOKE Bison moved up to third in the English Premier League after they recorded a four point weekend, thanks to a 4-3 victory at Guildford Flames.

This was their first win over their Surrey rivals this season and came despite being 2-0 down by the sixth minute, after Slovak sniper Roman Tvrdon struck twice.

His first goal came from a great strike after a drop pass from Ben Campbell and then the Brit set-up him up for his second  at 5:20.

The Herd hit back as Ciaran Long put away a rebound from close range and then Cameron Wynn tied the game at 11:13.

The Bison who outshot the Flames 21-7 in the opening 20 minutes and took a deserved lead as Aaron Connolly scored after a goal mouth scramble.

The second period started with a fight between the Bison’s Joe Greener and Flames’ man-of-the-match Danny Meyers, which earned both players a four minute rest in the sin bin at 20:01.

In a very physical session both sides had their chances, but there was only one goal as Joe Rand made the most of breakaway move to score at 37:36.

The final period saw the Flames’ forward options further reduced as Tvrdon was forced out of the game due to injury.

However, the home side narrowed the lead to one goal, as Andy McKinney put away a pass from David Longstaff at 45:22.

Seconds later, the Flames were reduced to two imports after defenceman Branislav Kvetan was dismissed for tripping, as Greener was helped from the ice.

This was original called as a match penalty at 45:57, but it was later downgraded to a game misconduct, as the Bison forward returned to the ice by the end of the game.

The Herd went looking for a fifth goal on the five minute powerplay, as Tomas Karpov and Rand both forced saves from James Hadfield.

Their man advantage was ended when Bison man-of-the-match Kurt Reynolds took a penalty for hooking.

In the final 10 minutes, the Herd really put the pressure on themselves as Reynolds again and Declan Balmer were sent to the sin bin.

Then in the final minute a too many men on the ice call against the Bison, gave Guildford one last powerplay with 45 seconds left.

The home side pulled their goalie Hadfield, but were unable to force an equaliser.

The Bison will look to extend their recent winning streak to three games on Saturday, when the reigning league champions Manchester Phoenix are the visitors to Basingstoke (face-off 6.30pm).