THE Basingstoke Bison maintained their perfect start to their league campaign as they cruised to a 7-1 victory over the visiting London Raiders.

The match saw for the first time in the club’s history a player forced to go in goal after the visitor’s only netminder on the night Euan King was injured.

Raiders’ team captain and forward Tom Davis took over with 13:31 remaining and received the man of the match award for his efforts.

The Herd were minus injured defenceman Stuart Mogg for this game but got off to a good start.

London took five minutes to trouble home goalie Dean Skinns with their first of three shots in the opening 20 minutes.

Meanwhile at the other end King was a lot busier as he faced 19 shots, which was helped as the Bison had four powerplays in the opening session and they converted three of them.

The impressive Ashley Jackson opened the scoring at 10:47, as he fired home from the slot after being found by Tomas Karpov.

Ivan Antonov netted the second goal with some solo magic and Karpov grabbed the third, as he drew King out of this net, before hammering the puck home.

The second session opened with a couple of early London chances for Callum Wells and Brandon Ayliff, before the home side took control again.

A lovely worked goal made it 4-0, as Antonov found Jaroslav Cesky and his lovely back hand pass to man of the match Aaron Connolly, saw him rifle home.

The game then got a little chippy and Karpov was caught in the face, but no penalty was called by Stephen Matthews.

This was followed soon after, by a high hit on Grant Rounding by former Bison Alan Lack.

This was eventually called by Matthews after consulting with his linesman Alasdair MacPhee, even if the referee was only five feet from the incident.

Lack was given a 2+10 penalty for checking to the head and then was given another 10-minute penalty for the displeasure he showed in the sin bin, which earned him an early shower.

The third period started with the Bison still in control and then King suffered a leg injury and tried to carry on, but at 46:29, the London netminder was forced out of the contest.

As London had no back-up goalie captain Davis put on the goalie kit and after a 12-minute delay the game resumed.

Davis made a couple of saves the second being from a Connolly shot, which unfortunately came out and hit Olegs Lascenko and ended up back in the net.

Within a minute, Antonov added goal number six with a low shot.

The Raiders hit back as Skinns was called into make a double save to deny Jack Cooper and then JJ Pitchley.

The Bison should have heeded the warning as at 50:30, Marek Nahlik fired in from the right wing to open the visitors account.

The Herd replied as Paul Petts released Jackson, who produced a smart finish to complete the 7-1 scoreline.

After the game Bison head coach Doug Sheppard said: “It is always difficult to play against a player in goal, but we had to keep going. It was good win for us and definitely a step in the right direction but we still have some way to go.”

Today the Bison are on their league travels to Gillingham to face Invicta.