THE Basingstoke Bison chalked up their seventh straight home win as they beat their local rivals the Bracknell Bees 5-1.

That was the good news from the evening as well as the return of defenceman Joe Baird, but the bad news was they gained another injury as Aaron Connolly lasted just 12 seconds of the game.

The forward went down after he collided with Bracknell defenceman Lewis Turner and took no further part in the game.

The home side as expected had the better of the first 20 minutes with the Bees minus their star import Lukas Smital.

They scored the only goal of the period at 6:39, thanks to a great strike from Joe Rand.

The game was then won in the second session as the Herd scored four unanswered goals.

The first came just 52 seconds after the interval, as Joe Greener walked into the slot and fired over former Bison goalie Tom Annetts.

The Bison nearly added to their tally as a blue line shot from Bison man-of-the-match Miroslav Vantroba hit the post, before Doug Sheppard released Greener to score his second of the night.

The first penalties of the game soon followed as Greener and Turner had a disagreement.

It was no real surprise it happened as referee Dave Cloutman was letting a lot go.

Kurt Reynolds released Cameron Wynn during the four-on-four, but his shot was caught and then Radek Hubacek tested Bison goalie Dean Skinns.

The first powerplay of the night came when the Bison were pulled up for too many men on the ice.

However, the Herd produced a great penalty kill as first Rand and Wynn pushed hard up the ice and then Tomas Karpov and Ciaran Long kept the puck around the Bees net.

The game then threatened to boil over after Scott Spearing held down Karpov by the boards and Watt came into help and this sparked a scrum by the boards.

Cloutman could have stopped it if he had blown for the penalty earlier as eventually Spearing departed to the sin bin.

The Bees killed the powerplay, but soon after the Bison made it 4-0 as a lovely cross by Ryan Watt was met at the back post by Vantroba.

The Slovak defenceman then scored again, as this time Michael Wales is the provider of the past for Vantroba to hammer home.

The final 20 minutes of the contest was the most even of the night. Skinns made a number of good saves as he kept out Bracknell’s man-of-the-match Danny Ingoldsby, as well as Hubacek.

The Bees then scored the only goal of the final session thanks to a great solo strike from Ivan Antonov at 51:16.

After this the sides swapped chances, but there was no further scoring as the Bison ran out comfortable 5-1 winners.

The victory saw the Herd move above the Peterborough Phantoms into third place in the English Premier League.

Tonight, these two sides meet in Peterborough for the final time in the league this season and the action starts at 5.30pm.