THE Basingstoke Bison suffered their first home defeat of 2015 as they lost to the visiting Swindon Wildcats 5-3.

In ended a run of nine straight English Premier League home wins and was their first defeat on home ice since the Wildcats visited in late December.

However, the shot count told the story of this game as Swindon were out shot 46-21, but their lethal finishers took their chances.

The game saw Bison netminder Dean Skinns become the first Basingstoke goalie to pass 10,000 league minutes in goal for the Herd in the second minute of the contest.

He received a standing ovation from the home fans after a break in play soon after he reached the milestone.

Skinns was then called into action to make a great save to deny Jan Kostal on a two-on-one breakaway and the alarm bells should have started to ring in the Bison camp. Floyd Taylor then broke clear and again the Bison goalie came to the rescue.

However, they were not so lucky at 8:34, as man-of-the-match Nell skated down the rink alone and fired past Skinns.

The advantage was then doubled thanks to a crisp blue line shot from Lee Richardson.

The Herd hauled themselves back into the contest Miroslav Vantroba scored from the blue line.

The goal also gave Ryan Watt his first point of the season since joining the Bison.

The second session saw the Herd completely dominate the first 15 minutes of the session, but they just could not find a way past their former goalie Stevie Lyle.

Skinns was then called into action to deny Johan Hoog with a breakaway chance.

Then disaster struck, as a Callum Burglass’ pass from his own end zone saw Sam Bullas breakaway and score at 37:36.

The Swindon fans had only just finished the celebrations for that goal when the lively Hoog made it 4-1.

The Bison now needed a lifeline in the final period and it came in the shape of their only powerplay of the night.

They may not have scored with the man advantage, but seconds later they did thanks to Doug Sheppard at 45:06.

The Herd kept up the pressure on and Nicky Chinn reduced the lead to one goal four minutes later.

The Bison now looked for an equaliser and Lyle had to be at his best to keep them out.

With 76 seconds left the Herd pulled their netminder for an extra skater, but a nice pass out of the zone from Adam Harding found Tomas Kana and he calmly slotted the puck into the empty net to complete a 5-3 victory.

The Bison have the chance for quick revenge for the loss as they travel to Swindon on Saturday in a game which will decide third place in the table.

Tonight, the Herd are on the road to Bracknell in a game which has a 6pm face-off.