A FOURTH straight win for the Basingstoke Bison was the ideal way for the Herd to sign off their league campaign ahead of the play-off defence.

Their final victory was a 3-1 success at the Milton Keynes which completed a quick double over the Lightning.

It was the first time this season the Herd had won in the Buckinghamshire rink and in fact the previous five games between the sides this season had all been won by the home side.

MK were out for quick revenge after their 6-4 loss in Basingstoke the previous Sunday and were boosted with the return of British forwards Jordan Cownie and Grant McPherson.

Meanwhile, the Bison were still minus their injured trio of Matt Selby, Declan Balmer and Tomas Karpov.

The Herd looked like they had scored on the opening powerplay of the night, but referee Matt Thompson decided to disallow the effort.

After the teams traded chances, it was left to MK’s man-of-the-match Milan Kostourek to open the scoring at 16:58 as he made the most of a nice pass from Adam Carr to score from close range.

The second period saw the Bison get off to a dream start as Ciaran Long netted after just 23 seconds as he fired home.

The Herd then took the lead as a too many men penalty on MK proved costly as Doug Sheppard finished off a move which involved Joe Greener and Andy Melachrino at 27:52.

The visitors had another powerplay as the period came to a close, but were unable to find a way past Stephen Wall this time around.

The final period saw Long test Wall early on and then Carr forced Dean Skinns into a save.

The Bison then doubled their lead as Brendan Baird found Sheppard and he released Long and he scored at 47:29.

Seconds later, MK were given a great chance to get back into the game as Herd defenceman Miroslav Vantroba departed to the sin bin for holding, but Skinns made the saves to keep them out.

After last week’s feisty encounter this was a much more mild manner affair as both sides geared up for the play-offs and there were no further goals in the contest.

The Bison have no game tonight, but start their play-off trophy defence in Altrincham on Saturday against the Manchester Phoenix.

The second leg will be in Basingstoke the following night and has a 5.30pm face-off.

Also last night Guildford’s game against league champions Telford Tigers was abandoned after 31 minutes due to a crack in the ice.