THE Basingstoke Bison were edged out 2-1, in a very close contest on home ice by the Peterborough Phantoms.

The Herd gave a first league start to netminder Dan Weller-Evans, after his impressive performances last weekend.

However, cruelly his evening was cut short, as in making his first save of the night from James Ferrara, he suffered a leg injury and Alex Mettam replaced him in the seventh minute.

In the opening session, the Bison took their time to get going and it was no real surprise the visitors took the lead at 9:58.

James Ferrara finding the back of the net from close range.

The home side then started to create chances, but Peterborough so nearly made it 2-0, but Mettam denied Nathan Pollard with a smart kick save.

This proved vital as 10 seconds later, the puck was in the Phantoms net thanks to Liam Morris via passes from Ashley Tait and Adam Jones.

After the interval, the Bison really stepped it up and Peterborough goalie Jordan Marr certainly earned his man of the match award.

Just a minute into the session, Alex Sampford was denied on the back hand, from an excellent pass from Tait.

Jay King then tested the goaltender as did Sampford on the first powerplay of the night, before Phantoms Corey McEwen was thwarted on a shorthanded break.

Bison import Michal Klejna, whose match penalty from last Sunday was quashed, then went close as did Richard Bordowksi.

A great steal by Tait from Ales Padelek saw the Bison player/coach able to find Sampford at the back post, but Marr read the play and made the stop.

Peterborough’s only powerplay of the night, saw them threaten the home goal, while Hallam Wilson went close shorthanded.

As the period came to a close, Bordowski was tripped in the crease by Robert Ferrara as he skated in on goal, but referee Blaine Evans called no penalty, which left a chorus of boos ringing around the arena.

Then fellow import Klejna tried to stickhandle his way past Marr, but he was having none of it.

The final 20 minutes of the contest proved to be a lot more open and James Ferrara had the first chance in the first minute.

The Bison replied as Tait found Klejna, but his back- hand effort was saved.

Peterborough then scored the game winner after a good spell of pressure as the Herd were unable to clear their own end zone, as Padelek eventually fired home from the slot a 43:23.

A minute later, Petr Stepanek tried to double the advantage, as he looked to slip the puck under Mettam, but he made the stop.

The Herd again hit back as twice Klejna was denied after being set up by Tait and on another night the Slovak sniper would have surely had a hat-trick.

With seven minutes left in the contest, Peterborough’s James White pinged a shot off the crossbar.

Sampford again tested Marr, but the goalie held on to the shot and you could count on one hand the number of rebounds he gave-up on the evening.

As the contest entered the final two minutes, Will Weldon’s shot was caught by Mettam, but as the Bison goalie went to release the puck, he collided with Weldon falling to the ice and Weldon was penalised for goalie interference.

This set up a thrilling finale, as the Bison threw everything at the Peterborough goal and with 36 seconds left pulled Mettam for the extra skater, but they still could not a force what would have been a deserved equaliser.

The Herd man of the match award went to young defenceman Sam Smith for another solid performance.

After the game Bison player/coach Tait said: “I cannot fault the effort of the guys. We came out flat in the first period, but them dominated the second. Just a couple of individual errors have cost us the game in the end.”

This evening, the Herd travel to Romford to take on the Raiders.