THE Basingstoke Bison booked their place in the South Cup final after nail biting second leg on home ice against the Swindon Wildcats.

In another great night at the Basingstoke Arena, in the end the game ended 5-5 and so the Herd won 9-8 on aggregate.

A very cagey opening session saw very few clear cut chances.

Swindon’s Jonas Hoog hit the pipework, before the Herd extended their advantage to two overall, after Russ Cowley beat Renny Marr low down from a nice Ashley Tait pass.

The Wildcats replied early in the second period as Tyler Plews is able to fire home from the blue line.

The Herd hit straight back and just 77 seconds later, former Swindon player Adam Harding touched home a shot from man of the match George Norcliffe.

The Bison then extended their lead on the night to 3-1 and overall to three goals as Tait with a nice wrist shot scored after being released by Michal Klejna.

The home side fans were celebrating even more with three seconds left in the second session, as the Herd scored again.

Richard Bordowski finding the net after good work from Norcliffe which left the Wildcats a mountain to climb.

However, with the firepower Swindon have you can never write them off and that proved to be the case.

With the visitor's Sam Bullas in the box for a 2+10 boarding penalty on Tait, Swindon pulled a goal back shorthanded as Chris Jones released Max Birbraer and he fired over Alex Mettam in the Bison net.

As the game entered the final 10 minutes, the visitors scored two quick goals to tied the game 4-4 and make the aggregate score 8-7 to the Herd.

Their first came from a goal mouth scramble as Hoog poked the puck home and a minute later Aaron Nell scored from close range.

With the momentum firmly with the visitors the home side defend to a man.

With just under minute left, Swindon goalie Marr was removed for the extra skater and much to delight of the home fans, Tom Ralph flicked the puck to Tait who found the empty net with 29 seconds left.

The visitors remove their goalie again and piled on the pressure and their man of the match Chris Jones scored after another goal mouth scramble, but with only two seconds left it is all too late and the Herd were into the final.

There will meet either Bracknell or Peterborough. The first leg of their semi-final was due to be played in Bracknell on Saturday, but was postponed due to the weather so last night became the first leg in Peterborough, which the home side won 6-3.

This weekend, the Bison return to league action on Saturday (6.30pm), when Peterborough are the visitors.