THE Basingstoke Bison start their quest for the final piece of silverware up for grabs this season as they take on the Swindon Wildcats this weekend in the English Premier League play-off quarter-finals.

Victory over their Wiltshire rivals in the two-legged affair would see the Herd finally end four years of hurt and take their place at the finals weekend in Coventry for the first time ever.

The opening leg of the last-eight encounter is at the Link Centre on Saturday (face-off 5.45pm) and then another bumper crowd will be expected for the return at the Basingstoke Arena on Easter Sunday (5.30pm).

The Bison are hoping to have forward Nicky Watt back from injury, but will be without Cameron Wynn and Matt Selby, who are both away on international duty, while Andy Melachrino, Kurt Reynolds and Jacob Corson-Heron remain sidelined.

Despite this, confidence will be high in the Herd camp after the team achieved their best-ever finish in the EPL and have top goalie Stevie Lyle – who made the league’s all-star team this week – and the meanest defence.

Another boost came last weekend when Basingstoke signed off the regular season with a 6-3 victory over their play-off opponents.

That completed a 4-2 league series success and saw the Wildcats slip down to seventh in the final EPL table.

Last season, Doug Sheppard guided Slough to play-off success to deny the Guildford Flames an EPL grand slam, and he has his sights set on repeating that.

The Bison player/coach said: “Play-off hockey is different, but as long as we play well, I can see no reason why, over 120 minutes, we will not come out on top.

“We have beaten them 4-2 in the season so that gives us an idea of where we are.

“We will certainly not be getting ahead of ourselves. We have to make sure we do not take Swindon for granted.”

The Wildcats are certainly used to upsetting the form book in the play-offs as three years ago, Ryan Aldridge’s men finished eighth in the standings and then knocked out league champions Milton Keynes for their only appearance in Coventry.

Among the Wildcats’ danger men are Ice Hockey Journalists UK’s Player of the Year Jonas Hoog and the league’s leading goalscorer Aaron Nell.

Swede Hoog, top Brit Nell and Finn Matius Perkkio will hold the key if Swindon are to succeed as the trio have scored 17 of the 20 goals Swindon have netted against the Herd this season.

Bison boss Sheppard said: “We will set our lines up to make sure we keep Hoog and Nell quiet. Even so, they still have Matius Perkkio and Henri Sandvik, giving them two strong lines.

“We have to play a strong team defence and that will be difficult if we take a lot of penalties, so we have to have to stay out of the penalty box.”

Follow Graham Merry’s live updates from both quarter-final legs by logging on to basingstokegazette.co.uk/sport.