KURT Reynolds scored an overtime winner as the Basingstoke Bison opened their season with thrilling 3-2 victory over their local rivals the Guildford Flames.

The Herd who had Joe Greener back in their line-up, also added Jacob Ranson and Ryan Sutton, while Guildford were minus Rupert Quiney.

The Bison were quick out of the blocks as Shaun Thompson went close in the opening seconds.

The home side then continued to have the better of the encounter, as Greener, Joe Rand and Ciaran Long all were denied by Gregg Rockman.

The Bison finally got their reward, as Thompson found the bottom left hand corner of the net with a superb slap shot at 10:18.

Very much against the run of play the Flames levelled things, as Jens Eriksson scored from close range five minutes before the first period buzzer.

The Bison went in front again at 22:39, thanks to a super team goal, which was started by man-of-the-match Tomas Karpov.

His inch perfect pass found the on rushing Miroslav Vantroba, whose low shot was deflected in by Ryan Watt.

The Herd then went close with a couple of chances, before Aaron Connolly departed to the sin bin.

On the powerplay a defence splitting pass sent Eriksson clear, but a very timely poke check from Bison netminder Tomas Hiadlovsky took the puck off his stick.

An early Flames powerplay in the final session, saw the new Bison goalie once again produce an excellent stop to deny Erik Piatak.

Guildford were now playing with a lot more purpose and with five minutes remaining they tied the game.

Kevin Phillips picked up a loose puck and even if his first shot was saved by the pads of Hiadlovsky, he netted his own rebound.

With no further scoring the game went into overtime, which this season has been changed as it is now just three skaters each plus a netminder and of these only one can be an import.

As the Herd’s goalie is an import, it meant it was up to the Brits to win the game and they did just that.

Watt, capped a great game as he turned provider for Reynolds to skate in at the back post and score at 61:45.

So most of the 1,100 plus crowd went home happy and they will hope the Bison can continue their winning start to the campaign tonight at Peterborough (5.30pm).

The Phantoms also enjoyed a winning start to their season last night, with an excellent 6-3 success at Swindon.