THE Basingstoke Bison suffered another home loss last Saturday as they were narrowly beaten 5-4 by the Hull Seahawks, writes Graham Merry.

The Herd still only had four defencemen for the game with Josh Kelly injured and Liam Morris suspended.

Despite this, the Bison took the lead in the fourth minute as George Norcliffe scored from close range.

Bottom-of-the-table Hull levelled after a lovely cross-ice pass from Declan Balmer, who found Nathan Salem and he fired the puck into the top corner.

The Seahawks then scored twice in the space of 90 seconds as their star import Andrej Themar netted both.

His first came as he burst through the centre of the home defence and then the second was a tap in at the far post.

At this point with the score at 3-1 to the visitors, the Bison called a time out, but still trailed by two at the first buzzer.

The second session saw the home side hit back as man of the match Alex Sampford converted at the second attempt.

The Herd then levelled things at 31:34, from a superb powerplay strike from Gael Lubwele.

However, Hull made sure they led at the second break as Declan Jones tipped home a blue line shot.

This set up a tense final 20 minutes and the home side equalised once again as Zack Milton scored from close range at 43:33.

After this both sides went looking for the winner and with less than four minutes left, the visitors were given a powerplay after a tame penalty on Brendan Baird.

Hull made the most of the extra man with a well-worked move which saw James Archer score at the back post.

With 16 seconds left, the Seahawks were then penalised and an exchange of fists from Archer and Bison’s Marcel Balaz earned both five minutes for fighting.

The Herd pulled their netminder in the last roll of the dice but were unable to force an equaliser.

A very disappointing Bison head coach Ashley Tait said: “We were shocking tonight and I am looking for a response from the players this coming weekend against Telford and the Bees.”

The Telford Tigers are first up at home on Saturday (6.30pm) and then on Sunday (4pm) the Herd travel to Slough to face the Bees.