THE Basingstoke Bison enjoyed a double winning weekend in two different competitions.

On Saturday night at Lee Valley, they kept the pressure on league leaders the Peterborough Phantoms, with a 4-1 win over the London Raiders.

The previous night, on home ice, they beat the visiting Hull Pirates 4-3 in the first leg of their Autumn Cup semi-final.

On Saturday evening, the Herd minus captain Aaron Connolly were quickly out of the blocks, as they took the lead at 2:16, from Kurt Reynolds assisted by Paul Petts and Tomas Karpov.

The visitors doubled their advantage 20 minutes later, as this time Dan Davies struck finishing a move involving man of the match Ivan Antonov and Josh Smith.

Then just 50 seconds before the buzzer, the Bison made it 3-0, as Petts converted a pass from Roman Malinik.

In the fourth minute of the final period, the Bison netted their fourth as Antonov fired home from Smith and Davies.

The home side then opened their account from former Bison Alan Lack at 49:45, but this was as close as they got.

The previous evening in Basingstoke against the Hull Pirates, the Herd had the best chance of the opening seven minutes after Stuart Mogg released Karpov, but his breakaway effort was saved by Adam Long.

The Pirates then scored on their first powerplay of the night from Bobby Chamberlain, who was left unmarked in the slot.

The Herd equalised thanks to man of the match Dan Scott’s great shot from the left point at 12:02.

They then took the lead thanks to a nice flowing move which saw Reynolds release Hallam Wilson down the left wing and he centred for Karpov to finish with a nice wrist shot.

With 42 seconds left in the first period, Aaron Connolly saw his shot hit the post, but just 12 seconds later, the same player fired home to make it 3-0.

The home side looked to have scored a fourth at 22:24, as Scott’s shot looked to have been saved, but went into the net. However, referee Stephen Matthews disallowed the goal, as he had blown the whistle - thinking the shot had been saved.

The Herd continued to have the better of the period with Malinik, Smith and Joe Baird all going close.

The visitors then closed the gap to one goal at 35:31 as Hull’s man of the match Chamberlain fired into top corner.

Then in the final two mins minutes of the second session, Long made an excellent double save to deny both Baird and Malinik, as it remained 3-2 at the buzzer.

The Bison once again extended their lead at 43:14 thanks to a lovely strike from Malinik after being released by Elliott Dewey.

The Pirates thanks to another powerplay goal, this time from Jason Hewitt five minutes later, saw the game end 4-3 which means there is everything to play for in the second leg on February 7 in Hull.

However, before this the Bison have the minor matter of a top of the table clash, with the Peterborough Phantoms, on home ice on Saturday (6.30pm).