UKRAINE was the real winner in last Saturday’s game, when the Basingstoke Bison entertained the Peterborough Phantoms.

The Hockey for Ukraine match saw the home side wear special one off jerseys in blue and yellow and the Ukrainian national anthem was also played before the game,

The match was used to raise money for the Disasters Emergency Committee Ukraine Appeal.

The first action in the contest came at 4:45, as the Bison’s Ashley Tait and Phantoms’ Petr Stepanek exchanged words.

Zack Milton joined the melee and it ended up with him and Stepanek exchanging blows by the home bench.

Four minutes later the Bison opened the scoring, as Milton and Adam Harding combined for Alex Roberts to rifle home from the slot.

The Phantoms replied with an equaliser a minute later, after Duncan Spiers tapped in at the back post.

The Bison then took the lead again as man of the match Liam Morris stepped in from the blue line and ripped a shot past Jordan Marr with 25.2 seconds left in the session.

The first 10 minutes of the second session saw the Bison concede four powerplays, but despite this they scored shorthanded.

George Norcliffe chipped the puck out of the Herd’s end zone and onto Harding who skated away and scored.

Spiers did hit the post a few minutes later for the Phantoms, but the Bison ended the session on top and deserved their 3-1 lead.

The Herd started the final period minus top British forward Ashley Tait and therefore had to reshuffle their forward lines.

The Phantoms then hauled themselves back into the contest as Nathan Pollard scored at 45:16.

Five minutes later with Peterborough shorthanded, Pollard skated in on net, but was hauled down by Brendan Baird.

It was certainly a penalty, but to the amazement of everyone in the building instead of being given two minutes, he was dismissed on a five minute major.

This proved to be the turning point of the game as the visitors scored twice on the powerplay thanks to Will Weedon and man of the match Glenn Billing, to make it 3-2 at 53:16.

The Bison went hunting for an equaliser and even given a powerplay for the final 65 seconds and pulling their goalie to give them a 6 on 4 advantage, they were unable to find the net.