ALAN Lack celebrated signing full time for the Bison, with the opening goal as the Herd maintained their 100 per cent start to their pre-season campaign with a 5-2 victory over the visiting Guildford Flames.

The home side were minus forward Joe Greener, but added young Buffalo defenceman Louis Taylor.

It was the Flames who opened the scoring thanks to one of their new imports Jens Eriksson, even if the goal was credited to Kevin Phillips at 3:09 The Bison were level a minute later, as JJ Pitchley’s shot was pushed away by Guildford goalie Gregg Rockman, but Lack put away the rebound.

After this the rest of the session was an even affair as both sides skated hard, but were unable to add to their tally.

The Herd got off to a dream start in the second session, as Shaun Thompson scored from close range after just 15 seconds.

The lead was then doubled as JJ Pitchley netted with a lovely wrist shot.

Guildford pulled themselves back into the contest, thanks to Matt Towe, but the Herd hit back as Ciaran Long cannoned a shot off the crossbar and the lively Jacob Ranson went close.

The Bison did extend their lead after Long’s shot turned into a pass as his stick snapped and Aaron Connolly scored.

Then 36 seconds later, Tomas Karpov netted from close range to make it 5-2.

Then in the dying seconds of the period, Watt looked to have added a sixth goal, but the referee adjudged his effort which hit the underside of the bar not to have gone in.

The final 20 minutes saw both sides try to score and the Bison had a couple of good penalty kills, before the major talking point of the game which saw Long dismissed on a match penalty for checking to the head on Andy McKinney.

However, before he could make it to the sin bin, Danny Meyers leapt off the Flames bench to join the action and received a match penalty for roughing.

The defenceman was lucky not to escape with even bigger penalty as he was not on the ice when the incident happened Then seconds after the final buzzer, the players came together behind the Bison goal which saw Bison Declan Balmer and Guildford’s Rupert Quiney trade blows, but once the dust had settled referee Tom Pickett did not give them any penalties.

Another fine performance from defenceman Stuart Mogg saw him pick up the man-of-the-match award again.

Tonight (6pm), the Bison face their first away pre-season game as they travel to face the Guildford Flames again.