CAPTAIN fantastic Aaron Connolly grabbed the Bison’s first hat-trick of this season’s play-offs to keep the Herd on course for the treble, after a 3-1 victory over the Sheffield Steeldogs at Coventry.

This sets up a final against the Telford Tigers today (5pm), after they beat the Peterborough Phantoms 4-1 in the first semi-final.

The Herd went into the game against Sheffield minus both Joe Baird and Grant Rounding, and it was Sheffield who had the first chance in the opening minute from James Spurr.

The Bison’s Ivan Antonov then tested Sheffield man of the match Dmitri Zimozdra in the fourth minute, before Spurr went close again from a Milan Kolena pass.

After Herd men Dan Davies and Kurt Reynolds were denied, the lively Kolena broke away, but Dean Skinns was equal to his effort on goal.

After an opening 20 minutes, which the Bison were the better team, the second session saw Sheffield have some good periods of pressure.

However, Basingstoke so nearly took the lead in the contest at 22:38, but Davies’ rifled wrist shot crashed back off the pipework.

After this, Kolena again tested the Bison goalie and Sheffield player/coach Ben Morgan saw his blue line shot padded away.

A rare Bison attack saw a nice lay back from Connolly, which allowed Paul Petts to get away a nice shot, but Zimozdra made the stop.

The deadlock in the contest was then broken at 29 minutes exactly by Kolena, after the import had a super skate down the left wing and then let fly with an equally good shot which flew into the net.

The Steeldogs then so nearly doubled their advantage, when a stray pass was picked up by Adrian Palak, who fed Cameron Brownley in the slot, but Skinns denied him.

It proved to be a very important stop, as 13 seconds later, great work by Josh Smith saw him force his way to the net, his shot was stopped, but man of the match Connolly put away the rebound to tie the game.

The first powerplay of the contest arrived on 37:06, as Elliott Dewey was penalised for roughing former Bison Greg Wood.

Despite being shorthanded the Bison went close from Antonov and Malinik, while Tim Smith so nearly converted the rebound from a Kolena shot.

Sheffield’s Ashley Calvert had the first chance of the final period after 40 seconds, only for the Herd to reply with a nice move as Antonov and Tomas Karpov combined, but Davies fired wide of the target.

Basingstoke’s first powerplay arrived soon after, but they failed to create one good goal scoring opportunity in the whole two minutes.

However, they took the lead in the contest at 48:01, as Connolly picked up a loose pass and skated into the slot to score.

Just 25 seconds later, Dewey was penalised again, and Sheffield piled on the pressure with their best chance coming from Palak, as he was denied by a great pad save from Skinns.

The Bison then had two powerplays of their own in quick succession, the first passed with little to report, but in the second, Kolena broke away, and as he went to shoot, he was tripped by Antonov.

Referee Paul Brooks had no hesitation in awarding a penalty shot to Sheffield.

Kolena stepped up to take it, but he over controlled the puck and Skinns made a nice blocker save to deny him.

Within a minute, the Steeldogs, broke away again, but a superb poke check by Dan Scott, took the puck off Palak’s stick.

With just over two minutes to play, Bison Antonov was the next player to go one-on-one with the goalie, but a great save denied him.

With 66 seconds left, Sheffield called a time out and pulled their netminder.

The Steeldogs piled on the pressure with Kolena coming closest to an equaliser.

Then with 26 seconds left, Connolly was found by Antonov and the captain slotted into the empty net to secure his side’s place in the final, which also sent the Bison fans in Coventry wild.