OSCAR Evans scored his first ever Basingstoke Bison goal, in only his second game for the Herd, as they beat the visiting Milton Keynes Thunder 7-2.

The Bison were minus Sam Brooks, Josh Smith, Paul Petts and Stuart Mogg for the clash, but welcomed back from injury Ivan Antonov and Grant Rounding.

An even opening few minutes, saw Rounding come the closest to scoring as he hit the pipework in the seventh minute.

A minute later, the home side took the lead, as the impressive Dan Davies fed Tomas Karpov, whose top corner strike hit the net.

The Thunder levelled things up at 12:31 as man of the match Tom Carlon rifled home.

The first powerplay of the evening, saw the Bison take the lead again as Antonov netted from close range.

The Herd then added a third before the buzzer, as man of the match Roman Malinik was found in the slot by Rounding and the Czech import did the rest.

Any ideas the Thunder had of getting back in the contest were silenced early in the second session.

Bison captain Aaron Connolly was hooked by Alex Whyte and referee Paul Brooks awarded a penalty shot, which Connolly calmly put past former Herd man Tom Annetts.

Within a minute, arguably the best goal of the game arrived, as Hallam Wilson skated past two Thunder players and then laid the puck off to Evans.

He side stepped another MK player and slotted the puck low into the net past Annetts, His first ever Bison goal was greeted by the biggest cheer of the night at 22:01.

Carlon so nearly scored his second of the night for MK, but the pipework denied him in the 25th minute.

The home side then extended their lead to 6-1, with a well taken goal from Rounding.

MK replied two minutes later, as Gareth O’Flaherty from the corner sent the puck towards the Bison goal and a bad deflection saw it end up in the net.

The final period saw the home side continue to have the upper hand, but Josh Crane, who replaced Annetts at the break was beaten just once.

This came off the stick of Davies at 50:47, as he finished a flowing passing move with Antonov and Karpov.

After the game, Bison head coach Doug Sheppard said: “It was great to see Oscar get his first goal and I felt offensively this was our best game of the season so far.”

This evening, the Bison face a tough test, as they travel to North One leaders the Telford Tigers for a National Cup game.