BASINGSTOKE Bison suffered a narrow 3-2 defeat, in their opening hotly contested pre-season game against visiting Guildford Flames.

The Herd gave debuts to Grant Rounding, Declan Balmer, Brendan Baird and Dan Weller-Evans, but it was Flames new boy Owen Fussey who opened the scoring at 13:41, as he fired into the roof of the net.

As the session came to a close Bison goalie Dean Skinns produced an excellent double save to deny Marcus Kristoffersson and Ben Campbell in a period in which they out-shot the visitors 12-5.

The Herd levelled things thanks to Nicky Chinn’s redirection on a Mirolslav Vantroba’s blue line effort, but a shorthanded strike from man-of-the-match Fussey, kept the Flames ahead at the second break.

This was after Guildford goalie Gregg Rockman made a number of good saves late in the session, to deny Rounding, Balmer and Ciaran Long.

The Flames extended their lead just 73 seconds into the final period, as Tom Duggan netted a David Savage rebound.

The Herd hauled themselves back into the contest from man-of-the-match Joe Rand as he scored close in on a powerplay seven minutes later.

From then on both sides went looking for further goals, but with no additions to the scoring, the Flames won the game 3-2.

Tonight sees the return in Guildford, before the Bison start their English Premier League campaign at home to Peterborough Phantoms on Saturday.

Scoring; Bison: Rand 1+1, Chinn 1+0, Vantroba, Karpov, Long 0+1, Flames: Fussey 2+0, Duggan 1+0, Savage 0+2, Longstaff, Huppe 0+1. Shots on Goal: Skinns 28, Rockman 34. Penalties: Bison 8min, Flames 16.