THE Basingstoke Bison bounced back to winning ways and extended their lead at the top of the English Premier League to four points.

This was thanks to a 3-2 victory in their top of the table clash against the visiting Milton Keynes Lightning on Friday night.

Rene Jarolin, who was released by the Lightning earlier in the season, had a great game against his former club, as he scored twice and picked up a well deserved man of the match award.

The Bison were still minus injured British defencemen Alex Symonds and Joe Baird, while MK were without imports Markku Tahtinen and Marti Jarventile.

In an end-to-end game from start to finish, both sides had early chances, before the Bison opened their account on the powerplay at 4:31.

Jarolin slotting the puck home at the back post, after Shaun Thompson's shot caused a scramble in front of the MK goal.

Grant McPherson promoted to the Lightning's first line tested Jon Baston a number of times in the opening session, while Dean Skinns did well to keep out Tomas Karpov with the Herd shorthanded.

MK were out the blocks quickly in the second session, as Baston had a busy couple of minutes.

The Bison then doubled their lead as Aaron Connolly burst into the Lightning end zone and found Greener, whose shot was saved, but Jarolin netted the rebound under Skinns at 24:18.

A minute later, it became 3-0 as Long's shot came off the goalie’s pads and Karpov buried the rebound.

The Bison then suffered penalty trouble, as Miroslav Vantroba was called for high sticks ages after the play had finished and the Herd bench earned an extra two minutes for abuse of official.

With a two man advantage Jordan Cownie scored unmarked at the back post at 28:54.

The rest of the session saw both sides have chances and the Herd so nearly added to their tally, as Connolly’s shot crashed off the crossbar and Karpov saw his effort cannon off the post.

The final 20 minutes saw Milton Keynes reduce the lead to one as McPherson deflected Frankie Bakrlik’s shot past Baston at 45:56.

This set-up a tense finale to the contest, which saw both teams killed penalties.

With 36 seconds left in the contest, the Lightning pulled their netminder for the extra skater, but were unable to force an equaliser.

Tonight (6pm), the Bison have a tough trip to the Hull Pirates.