THE Basingstoke Bison will look to maintain their six point cushion at the top of the English Premier League this weekend, when they face the Sheffield Steeldogs and Telford Tigers.

They will then turn their attentions to their home leg of their EPL Cup semi-final on Wednesday night, when the Herd face their arch rivals the Guildford Flames.

The Bison are in awesome form at the moment with eight straight wins under their belts.

The last team to beat them are Saturday’s visitors to Basingstoke the Sheffield Steeldogs at Ice Sheffield in the middle of December.

So the Herd will be out to put the record straight against their Yorkshire rivals, in game which has a 6.30pm face-off.

Alan Lack is back from honeymoon and returns to the Bison line-up this weekend.

Looking ahead to the game Bison head coach Doug Sheppard said: "We know they have some dangerous players and have to make sure they do not hurt us."

On Sunday night (6pm) the Herd travel to reigning league champions the Telford Tigers, who after a slow start in their defence of their crown, were doing well until their suffered a double defeat last weekend.

Sheppard said: “They will be looking to bounce back after suffering two defeats last weekend, so it is going to be a tough game."

After the weekend double header the Bison will then turn all their focus on beating the Guildford Flames in the EPL Cup.

The last time these sides met was in Surrey and the Herd won 5-4 after overtime.

Since this game the Flames have made a change to their import line-up with the signing of new netminder Richard Ullberg.

The former Finnish junior international is set to make his debut for the Flames this weekend and will add extra space to the game if any was needed.

Sheppard said: “Guildford are a very talent team and it is sure to be a very close series with them over the two games."

The second leg is in Guildford on Wednesday Jan 27, with winners facing either Milton Keynes or Peterborough.