THE Basingstoke Bison scored twice in the last five minutes to sure a 2-1 victory in Romford against the London Raiders, to remain top of South One.


The first two sessions of the contest saw no goals as home goalie Michael Gray and Herd's Dean Skinns saved everything that was shot at them.


In the first period, Tomas Karpov, Roman Malinik and Ivan Antonov all went close, while Skinns made a great save to deny Juraj Huska.


The second session saw the visitors edge the chances, but they were unable to make any count as it remained 0-0.


The match was snapped open at 41:09, when London's man of the match Brandon Ayliffe picked up a stray pass just inside the blue line, and ripped a wrister past Skinns.


The Bison then piled on the pressure, with a number of goal mouth scrambles as Gray kept them out.


Just when it looked like the team would be shut out, captain Aaron Connolly forced the puck home from close range from Dan Davies and Roman Malinik at 55:40.


The visitors then scored the winner as man of the match Connolly was the provider for Ryan Sutton to score with 62 seconds left.


The victory keeps the Bison top of league with five games to go and this coming weekend is another big one for the team, as they take on the third placed Swindon Wildcats at home on Saturday (6.30pm) and then travel to the Bracknell Bees on Sunday.