THE Basingstoke Bison were narrowly beaten 3-2 by the visiting Hull Pirates on what was a frustrating evening for the home side.

The Herd already minus British forward Liam Morris for this weekend due to suspension, saw import Michal Klejna dismissed for what looked like a harsh spearing penalty in the 16th minute of the contest.

As this point the home side looked the better side, but the gift of a five-minute powerplay saw Hull take the lead by the first buzzer.

This was after a nice passing move which saw Jonathan Kirk and Jason Hewitt combine for Bobby Chamberlain to score.

The Pirates extended their lead at 32:50 as a lovely pass from Lee Haywood released Hull man of the match Matty Davies.

The visiting forward made no mistake as he beat Alex Mettam in the home goal one-on-one.

Hull extended their lead to 3-0 soon after, thanks to another powerplay strike, this time from Jason Hewitt, who was found alone at the back door by Davies.

After this the Herd really came back into the contest and had a good spell of pressure, which saw Tomas Fucik produce a great leg pad to deny Richard Bordowski and then the net came off as Ashley Tait looked set to bury the rebound.

Soon after, George Norcliffe forced another good pad save, as the home side finished the session strongly.

Early in the final period on Hull’s last powerplay of the night, Bordowski was denied after a great pass from Russ Cowley.

It was then the turn of the Herd to go on the powerplay and both Tom Ralph and Adam Jones tested Fucik from the blue line.

Just when you started thinking the Hull goalie was on for a shut-out, up popped Oscar Evans to open his account for the season, as he fired home from man of the match Danny Ingoldsby at 51:05.

The home side now had the upper hand and Tait looked to test Fucik, but the net came off again and then Ralph’s blue line shot was saved on the powerplay.

On the next extra man advantage, Tait scored from just inside the blue line assisted by Cowley and Ralph to make it 3-2.

With 51 seconds left, Mettam was removed for the extra skater, but the Bison were unable to find that equalising goal as Norcliffe and Cowley were denied in the dying seconds of the contest.

After the game player/coach Tait said: “The call on Michal Klejna definitely changed the game. We came back from 3-0 down, but it was a little too late.”

Tonight, the Bison travel to Hull for the reverse fixture which has a 5.30pm face-off.