BASINGSTOKE Bison completed a clean sweep of home victories over visiting reigning league champions Manchester Phoenix thanks to a 3-2 victory.

The Herd were still minus Matt Selby, Grant Rounding and Brendan Baird, while the visitors only had three imports as Michal Psurny was injured, plus defencemen Luke Boothroyd and Joe Graham were missing, so forward Jack Watkins took on defensive duties.

The Bison got off to an excellent start as Doug Sheppard fired home after 82 seconds, but Manchester man-of-the-match Frankie Bakrlik equalised in the sixth minute.

The home side who had the better of the opening 20 minutes struck again at 14:27, as Sheppard’s shot saw Ciaran Long put away the rebound.

The same Bison forward line of Sheppard, Long and Joe Greener scored again on their next shift as man-of-the-match Greener found the net after good work from Sheppard at 17:18.

The second session saw both teams have their chances, but there were no further goals.

Manchester’s two import forwards Robin Kovar and Bakrlik continued to be a threat and Dean Skinns saved from both of them, while Phoenix player/coach Tony Hand had a couple of chances as the period came to an end.

Stephen Fone at the other end of the rink produced some good saves to keep out Cameron Wynn, Stuart Mogg, Michael Wales and Joe Rand.

The first powerplay of the final session went to the Bison after Hand felt he should have had a penalty and he talked himself into the sin bin.

Tomas Karpov went close as the Herd had an extra man and then Manchester got a powerplay from which Bakrlik scored with a sweet blue line strike.

This made the score 3-2 with 12 minutes to go, but the Phoenix cause was dealt a bitter blow two minutes later, when Kovar was dismissed for high sticks as he caught Reynolds in the face.

The Bison defenceman headed to the dressing room with a bloody nose, but was able to return later.

Long came closest to scoring on the five minute powerplay with a shot which came off the crossbar, while Manchester’s Bobby Chamberlain forced a save out of Skinns shorthanded.

With 87 seconds left, the Phoenix called a time-out, but never pulled their goalie or had a shot on goal as the Bison held on to win the game.

Tonight, the Herd have a tough trip to current league leaders Telford (face-off 5.45pm).