THE Basingstoke Bison extended their lead at the top of the English Premier League table to five points, after a 3-1 win over local rivals the Bracknell Bees.

The home side welcomed back from injury defenceman Joe Baird and also added Buffalo Daniel Lackey to their line-up.

The Bees were reduced to just one import for the game, after the departure of Milan Kostourek during the week.

This meant they iced an all British forward line with Ivan Antonov and Tom Beesley the pick of them.

The visitors certainly put up a good fight against the league leaders and it took the Herd nine minutes to open the scoring.

Rene Jarolin was the man to put the puck in the net, after some excellent stick work and Lackey picked up his first assist of the season on the goal.

The lead was doubled, as just 15 seconds into the first powerplay of the night, man of the match Shaun Thompson netted Declan Balmer’s rebound from close range.

The second session saw the home side dominate more, as they outshot the visitors 13-3.

However, Bees goalie Alex Mettam produced a number of excellent saves to make sure the Herd failed to add to their tally.

The third period was a lot closer and the Herd lost Matt Towalski, after he was hit in the face by the puck and headed straight to the dressing room.

The Bees’ effort was then rewarded with a goal as Scott Spearing netted from the high slot area at 52:59.

This gave the visitors a lift and Carl Thompson so nearly equalised soon after, but Jon Baston made the save.

A tense few minutes followed, before Tomas Karpov scored from close range with exactly two minutes left in the game.

The Bees then pulled their netminder for the final 61 seconds and Karpov so nearly scored again, but his goal bound shot was blocked by a defenceman in the goal crease.

Bracknell’s lone import Jan Bendik then had the final shot of the game with 42 seconds left, but it was saved as the Bison completed a clean sweep of home wins over their Berkshire neighbours.

Tonight, the Bison travel to Deeside to take on the Manchester Phoenix, who beat the Herd’s title rivals Milton Keynes Lightning 5-4 in overtime last night.