THE Basingstoke Bison opened their pre-season campaign at home with an excellent 5-1 victory over the visiting Guildford Flames.

It took the home side just 59 seconds to open their account, as new import Petr Polodna touched home a shot from man of the match Vanya Antonov.

The visitors levelled things thanks to Danny Meyers, as they made the most of a two man advantage on the powerplay, with both Ciaran Long and Tomas Karpov in the sin bin.

Karpov made amends four minutes later, as he slid the puck under Michael Will in the Flames net after a nice pass from Grant Rounding.

Karpov then departed for tripping, but despite this the Bison made it 3-1 at 16:55, as Aaron Connolly scored from Rene Jarolin.

The home side took just four minutes of the second session to extend their lead as Dan Davies and Connolly combined for Jarolin to score.

Guildford’s Jens Eriksson then pinged a shot off the crossbar, as the visitors started to come into the contest.

With five minutes of the final period gone the home side completed the scoring as Polodna centred the puck for Antonov to score.

Last Wednesday, the Bison lost their opening pre-season game 2-1 after a penalty shoot-out in Swindon.

In a close contest the opening goal did not arrive until 43:16, as the Herd scored.

This was after Kurt Reynolds’ shot was touched in by man of the match Shaun Thompson.

For the start of the final period, the Bison swapped their netminders with Dan Weller-Evans taking over from Tomas Hiadlovsky.

The British goalie saved well from Max Birbraer and Aaron Nell, before with 10 seconds left and having pulled their netminder the Wildcats equalised.

Ben Davies and Mark Smith combined for Jonas Hoog to score.

The game then went straight into a penalty shoot-out. The first four shooters all missed.

They were Vanya Antonov and Dan Davies for the Bison along with Ben Davies and Max Birbraer for the Cats.

The Herd’s Petr Polodna then broke the deadlock, only for Swindon’s Jan Kostal to level things.

The next five shooters Thompson, Adam Finlinson, Connolly, Michael Stratford and Karpov, all failed to score, before Wildcats’ player/coach Aaron Nell sealed the victory.

The Bison are in action again this evening against the Guildford Flames.