THE Basingstoke Bison snapped their recent losing run with a superb 6-0 home victory over the Raiders.

For Herd cageman Alex Mettam it was his third shut-out of the campaign, as he turned away all 17 shots he faced.

Once again for this game the Bison were without Richard Bordowski, while fellow forward Danny Ingoldsby also did not ice.

It was the visitors who had the first chance of the game, as Juraj Huska fired just wide.

The Herd then killed off an early powerplay, before Michal Klejna so nearly gave them the lead, but Michael Gray saved his first shot and he put the rebound wide.

Former Bison captain Aaron Connolly then tested Mettam, before the Bison opened the scoring exactly on nine minutes.

Russ Cowley found Ashley Tait and the player/coach fired home.

At 11:07 Connolly was called for hooking on Adam Jones and the Herd made quick work of the powerplay as 15 seconds later, Adam Harding had the puck in the back of the net.

The visitors then ran into more penalty trouble, as Brandon Aycliffe was rightfully given a 2+10 boarding call for an awful hit on Tait.

Just 24 seconds later, Connolly joined him in the sin bin and the home side made full use of the two-man advantage as Harding found Klejna and at the second attempt he forced the puck home.

The scoring in the first session was still not over as with 38 seconds left before the buzzer, George Norcliffe touched home a Klejna shot to make it 4-0 at the break.

At the start of the second period, the Raiders swapped their netminders as Gray was replaced by Ben Clements, who went onto pick up the visitor’s man of the match award.

The home side continued to have the upper hand and with Bison’s Josh Kelly in the sin bin, Harding so nearly added a fifth goal shorthanded, but his effort hit the post.

As the physicality of the contest increased more penalties followed, with JJ Pitchley being penalised for a hit off the play.

Once again, the Herd powerplay unit went to work with Tait and Klejna combining for Cowley to score.

The final period saw man of the match Klejna pick up his fourth assist of the game to add to his goal, as he released Liam Morris to make it 6-0 at 45:22.

After this Alex Sampford so nearly added goal number seven and then in the final minute of the contest, Tommy Huggett tested Mettam one last time, but the Bison man was not about to give up his shut-out.

This afternoon (4.15pm) the Bison travel to Swindon to take on the league leaders.