THE BASINGSTOKE Bison suffered the heartache of a 4-3 overtime loss at the Swindon Wildcats.

The Herd forced the game into the extra session thanks to a goal from Tomas Karpov 12 seconds from time, but Swindon star import Jonas Hoog made sure the home side won with a the winning goal at 60:59.

In an excellent contest from start to finish, Swindon's Stevie Lyle was the first of the netminders into action, as he kept out a shot from Alex Symonds .

Tomas Hiadlovsky then smothered a shot from Tomasz Malasinski at the other end before tipping over an effort from Carlo Finucci.

The Cats began to up the pressure and Hoog was the next man to be denied before the hosts were within the width of the crossbar from breaking the deadlock as defenceman Stevie Whitfield crashed an effort against the pipes.

The home side still had to be on their guard at the back and a huge save from Lyle thwarted Alan Lack.

However, Lack was sent to the penalty box shortly afterwards and the Cats took advantage.

Captain Jan Kostal picked out Finucci and the import rifled a powerful strike into the top corner.

The goal stirred Basingstoke into life and they bombarded the Swindon goal in the lead up to the buzzer, but Lyle pulled off good saves to deny both Shaun Thompson and Lack as their narrow lead remained intact.

Swindon started the second period with an extra man following the sin-binning of Declan Balmer prior to the buzzer and made the advantage count to double their lead.

A powerful Finucci strike forced a goalmouth scramble and Adam Harding was on hand to tuck home the loose puck.

Basingstoke's Shaun Thompson and Finucci then had efforts well saved, while Corey McEwen flashed a drive across the Bison goal but Floyd Taylor could not quite react fast enough to see it over the line.

Bison then began to bombard the Swindon net, and although Lyle pulled off one unbelievable save to keep out Tomas Karpov, this visitors would not be denied for long and Joe Rand swept home from close in while the Cats were a man light following a penalty against McEwen.

The visitors continued to turn the screw and another flurry in front of Lyle’s net saw the scores level, with Ciaran Long the man to finish the job for Bison this time.

Swindon had a big opportunity to get their noses back in front as they enjoyed a short five-on-three spell when two Bison men were in the sin-bin but the visitors put in a fine rear-guard effort to ensure the buzzer sounded with parity intact.

The Cats went within inches of getting back in front in the opening salvo of the final period as Kostal cracked an effort against the outside of the post.

Play went from end to end but again the Cats went closest to a goal but there was no way past Hiadlovsky for McEwen after the home side had worked a good move.

The visitors then had a fine chance to edge ahead as Rand lashed into the side-netting but they were then under pressure when Lack was sent to the penalty box.

The man advantage allowed Swindon to gain the initiative and Hoog fired them ahead with little over five minutes left on the clock, poking home Finucci’s drilled shot at the back post.

Bison threw everything at Swindon in the closing stages and capitalised on the sin-binning of Neil Liddiard as Karpov netted at the death to send the contest into an extra five minutes.

However, the home side were not to be denied and had all the attacks in overtime, with the decisive moment coming when Hoog stole possession before streaking forward and sweeping the puck past Hiadlovsky.

The result saw the Bison slip to third in the table and next up is a home game against the Sheffield Steeldogs on Saturday (6.30pm)