VICTORY this evening at Cardiff would see the Basingstoke Bison crowned league champions, after a superb 10-1 home win over Invicta Dynamos last night.

The Herd went into the weekend two points and six goals behind leaders the Peterborough Phantoms on goal difference. As the Phantoms only won their last league game 6-4 over Streatham and with the Herd winning by nine goals, they are now ahead on goal difference, so just need a win to take the title.

Against visiting Invicta, the Bison dominated from the first drop of the puck, but Damien King in the visiting goal kept the Herd out, until leading scorer Aaron Connolly broke the deadlock at 14:07.

The home side then added a second, as Dan Davies on the doorstep redirected a right wing cross from Ivan Antonov past King.

A stunning second session then followed, as the Herd took just 24 seconds to add goal number three, as Connolly fired into the roof of the net.

Just 66 seconds later, Davies slotted under King to make it 4-0.

The goals were now coming thick and fast. Ryan Sutton with a top shelf strike was the next to score and then man of the match Davies netted his hat-trick goal to make it 6-0 at 25:29.

Invicta then silenced another bumper crowd at the Basingstoke Arena, as Steve Osman scored from man of the match Mason Webster.

However, they soon found their voices again, as the Herd hit back 64 seconds later, with Antonov scoring from a lovely feed from Roman Malinik to make it 7-1.

There was still time in the period for an eighth Bison goal before the buzzer, thanks to a blue line bullet from Kurt Reynolds.

The final period saw Invicta swap their goalies as King was replaced by John Dibble and the Herd continued to pile on the pressure.

The post was pinged three times in the opening six minutes, twice by Antonov and once by Tomas Karpov.

The Bison finally added to their tally with goal number nine thanks to Karpov. With the clock ticking down and the home fans chanting for a tenth goal, Karpov obliged as he tipped in a blue line shot from Reynolds with 1.7 seconds remaining to complete the big win.

The previous night, the Bison left themselves some work to do in the second leg of the Autumn Cup final to be held in Swindon on Friday (7.45pm), after losing to the Wildcats 3-1 on home ice in the first leg.

Steve Whitfield gave the visitor’s the lead at 3:42 with a shot which deflected in off Antonov.

The Bison levelled things thanks to a shorthanded marker from Antonov, before the first period buzzer.

Swindon retook the lead at 32:11 from Jan Kostal and then Aaron Nell made it 3-1 at 48:10.