THE Basingstoke Bison had their lead at the top of the English Premier League cut to four points, after they suffered a 4-0 loss against the Guildford Flames on Saturday night.

Finnish netminder Richard Ullberg became the first goalie in seven years to record two shut-outs in a season against the Herd.

The cage man turned away 31 shots during the game, as the Flames dented the Bison’s title hopes.

The Herd had their own Finnish shot stopper Jon Baston back in goal for this game and in a close contest only one goal was scored in the first 40 minutes.

This came from Guildford’s British forward Tom Duggan at 11:55.

The Flames eventually doubled their advantage 35 minutes later, as Janis Ozolins netted from Andrew Hemmings and Duggan.

As the contest came to a close, Baston started to head to the Bison bench to give the Herd the extra skater, and then tried in vain to get back between the pipes as Lee Esders fired into the empty net at 58:51.

The home side then added a fourth goal, 19 seconds later, as Ben Campbell scored in the final minute.

After a win and loss, the Bison will hope to return to winning ways tonight in their third game in as many days away at Swindon.

The Wildcats lost 5-0 to the Herd on Friday evening, and were leading 3-1 at Milton Keynes last night, before going down 9-4.