THE Basingstoke Bison’s eight game winning streak came to an end, as they were beaten by the Sheffield Steeldogs 2-1, in a game which exploded at the final buzzer.

The contest proved to be a hard hitting affair from the opening face-off.

The visitors were quick out of the blocks as Liam Charnock nearly scored in the third minute, after good play by Stanislav Lascek.

However, they did not have to wait long for their opening goal, as a lovely set-up from Lubomir Korhon saw Arnoldas Bosas fire home at 3:51.

The first powerplay of the night, saw Greener crash Ben Morgan into the boards and the Steeldogs made full use of the extra man, as Andrew Hirst slotted in from close range at 6:30.

At this point, the visitors looked very much the better side, as the Bison found it hard to get their offensive units going.

They did haul themselves back into the game in the final minute of the session, as Greener found Ciaran Long at the back post to score.

The second period opened with a bang, as Sheffield’s Dalibor Sedlar was called to make two smart saves in the opening 14 seconds from Ryan Watt and Kurt Reynolds.

It looked very promising, but an awful hit by Bosas on Karpov saw the mild mannered leading goal scorer have words with the Sheffield import.

Referee Paul Brooks decided to ignore what was going on and as can happen with ice hockey another player takes out his teammate’s revenge.

In this case it was Watt with a slash across the back of the legs of Bosas.

This inevitably sparked a fight between Watt and Lee Haywood, while Ben Morgan got involved with Karpov and then Alan Lack.

The outcome saw Watt, Lack, Haywood and Morgan all receive four minutes each for fighting. Morgan received another additional 10 minute misconduct penalty and Watt was dismissed on a game misconduct.

This gave the Steeldogs a five minute powerplay, in which Steve Duncombe, Lascek and Bosas all tested Jon Baston.

Ryan Sutton, who served the five minute penalty, then stepped out of the sin bin and so nearly scored the equaliser from a lovely pass from Karpov.

The Bison were then awarded a rare powerplay, but were unable to find a way past a solid Steeldogs team, who were prepared to get sticks and bodies in the way to stop every attack.

Kurt Reynolds was the next Bison player to go to the sin bin, after he was crudely upended by Bosas. The Herd player somehow ended up with two sticks and was called for illegal equipment.

This powerplay was cancelled out by a penalty on Bosas and then the teams played four on four again, after Rene Jarolin was slashed by Tim Smith and fell to the ice.

Jarolin picked up a nonexistent roughing call, his first penalty since joining the Herd back in December.

As the clocked ticked down at the end of the second period, more Bison penalties followed including a debatable too many men on the ice call.

Sheffield did put the puck in the net with 3.2 seconds left, but it was disallowed as a player was in the goal crease.

The final period saw the Herd called again for too many men on the ice. A Lack breakaway saw him hauled down by Smith and the Herd were awarded a penalty shot.

Lack took the shot, but was unable to convert at 46:31.

The Bison looked for an equaliser, but the Steeldogs continued to make sure they were unable to carve out any decent clear cut chances.

However, Sedlar did make some nice saves, including a super point blank effort from Karpov in the final five minutes.

With 74 seconds left, the Bison called a time out and pulled their goalie for the extra skater, but were unable to find the equaliser.

Seconds after the final buzzer the teams came together in front of their benches as a number of fights took place.

Lee Haywood cross checked Greener by the Sheffield goal, but came off second best after Greener dumped him to the ice.

Meanwhile by the team benches it was difficult to keep up with what was happening as various players paired off, including the back-up goalies Dan Weller-Evans and Thomas Barkworth.

In total, 140 minutes in penalties were dished out after the final buzzer.

Bison players Greener, Weller-Evans, Miroslav Vantroba and Declan Balmer all received four minutes for fighting.

In addition, Greener was given a match penalty for fighting and Weller-Evans a game penalty for resisting an official and the bench two minutes for abuse.

For the Steeldogs, Barkworth, Craig Elliott, Haywood, Callum Pattison and Lascek all received four minutes each for fighting.

Lascek was given an additional two minutes for cross checking, while Elliott and Pattison both got match penalties for fighting.

The loss saw the Bison’s lead at the top of the EPL cut to four points and they will hope to bounce back to winning ways tonight when they travel to the Telford Tigers.