THE Basingstoke Bison extended their winning run to a magnificent seven games as they beat visiting Manchester Phoenix 5-0.

The game saw Jon Baston write his name into the Bison history books as he became the first player to record six shut-outs in a single season and also the first to achieve three in a row.

This week the Finnish-born goalie faced 20 shots in a game which the home side dominated from start to finish.

The Herd welcomed back leading goal scorer Tomas Karpov from injury, but Joe Baird, Alex Symonds (injury) and Alan Lack (honeymoon) were all missing.

The Phoenix had the first chance of the game as Martin Baranek's shot from the right wing was pushed away by Baston.

An early penalty on Ciaran Long gave Manchester a powerplay and both Robin Kovar and Luke Boothroyd tested Baston.

The Bison took the lead at 5:41 as a great long pass from Stuart Mogg set Karpov free and he fired past Stephen Fone.

The Herd doubled their advantage at 12:49, as Karpov turned provider as his lovely pass was put in by Matt Towalski for his first goal for the club.

The second session saw the home side continue to be in charge and they made it 3-0 at 24:24, as Long scored with a superb wrist shot after nice set-up play from Rene Jarolin.

Soon after, a powerplay to the Herd, saw them add a fourth goal as Aaron Connolly touched home a blue line shot from Long.

The Bison so nearly added a fifth, but Fone made three great saves in the space of seconds as Towalski and then Watt twice were denied.

The visitors then went close as Baston dived on the loose puck in the goal crease and soon after there was a goal mouth scramble, but the Phoenix failed to score.

Jarolin then tried to thread the puck through the legs of Fone, but the goalie just managed to stop it as it remained 4-0 at the second buzzer.

The third period was only two minutes old when referee Tim Pickett, who had not had the best of games, excelled himself by awarding Manchester a penalty shot.

This was despite Ciaran Long pointing out to him that the Phoenix player Michael Satek had gone past the goal, before he fell to the ice.

The referee felt he still had a goal scoring chance, but from where I was sat I could not see it.

As the boos rang around the Arena, Satek took the penalty shot, but could only find the big pads of Baston and the chance was gone much to the home fans delight.

Within a minute, the Bison added their fifth and final goal of the night as Joe Greener found Jarolin at the back post to score.

Soon after, Picket endeared himself to the home fans again as young British forward Jacob Ranson departed to the sin bin having managed to knock over Barabek who was twice his size.

Once again the Bison penalty kill unit did its job and Long so nearly scored shorthanded being denied by a great save by Fone.

Ryan Watt was then knocked into the Manchester goalie by Ben Wood and once again Pickett called a penalty.

For the second powerplay on the trot, Bison man of the match Long went close and then Ryan Sutton was also denied by Fone.

Manchester’s Baranek pinged a shot off the pipework in the final six minutes of the game which also saw Karpov and Ranson go close as the Bison ran out 5-0 winners.

The victory kept the Herd five points clear at the top of the English Premier League and tonight they travel to Hull.