THE Basingstoke Bison enjoyed a superb 4-2 victory at league leaders Swindon Wildcats on Friday night, followed up with a 6-3 success on home ice over the Raiders on Saturday evening.

The four-point haul moved the Herd back to third in the National League standings.

Against Swindon, the Bison turned in a great performance from start to finish and took the lead at 7:13 thanks to a great finish from Michal Klejna.

The Wildcats then equalised with a close range shot from Loris Taylor. In the space of 56 seconds in the second session the Bison scored twice, Bayley Harewood netted the first and then Marek Malinsky made it 3-1.

Tyler Vankleef hauled the home side back into the game with his side’s second at 53:12, as he found a way past Bison man of the match Alex Mettam. As the game entered the final two minutes, Swindon pulled their netminder, but the move backfired as Ashley Tait scored into the empty net.

On Saturday night back on home ice the Bison served up another highly entertaining evening.

In a very open first 20 minutes both sides had plenty of chances, but thanks to some excellent goal tending from Alex Mettam, the Bison led 2-0.

Alex Sampford scored their opening goal at 4:23, with a nice wrist shot from the right wing.

The Herd doubled their advantage thanks to man of the match Adam Jones’ crisp blue line strike.

The Bison had the better of the second session and extended their lead to 3-0, after Sam Smith released Liam Morris down the left wing and he scored with a lovely top corner strike.

Just four minutes later, the game boiled over after Tait cross checked Blahoslav Novak, who immediately started a fight with the Bison player/coach.

At this point, Raiders’ Jack Flynn grabbed Michal Klejna who made it clear there was no need for a fight and threw the Bison player headfirst into the plexi glass.

At this point, Jay King jumped in and exchanged blows with Flynn.

After the dust had settled and discussions as long as the Brexit talks took place, the outcome was a double powerplay for the Raiders as Klejna was given four minutes for his nonexistent fight.

The home side fans certainly showed their displeasure especially when it was announced that King had been dismissed for third man in, on a fight which never happened.

Anyway, the visitors made the most of the man advantage as Aaron Connolly scored at 31:51.

Then with five minutes of the session left there was some more fun and games.

Behind the play and away from the puck, top Raiders’ penalty man Mason Webster decided to punch Bayley Harewood and Josh Kelly retaliated and the whistle was blown.

At this point, a cross check by Liam Morris on Novak sent him across the ice on his backside.

A furious Novak got up and launched himself at the Bison player and the pair traded a few punches on the ice.

Once again the officials had a discussion and somehow the visitors ended up on the powerplay.

The home fans showed their displeasure and once again the Raiders make full use of the extra man to close the gap to one goal thanks to another Connolly strike.

Despite this the Herd hit back and scored a fourth goal, before the second buzzer.

This was on the powerplay, after former Bison man Dan Scott joined Lukas Sladkovsky in the sin bin.

Jones was the scorer from the top of the slot after a nice lay back from Adam Harding.

Then with 55.9 seconds left in the period former Bison captain Connolly was dismissed for high sticks, after he caught Ryan Sutton and drew blood.

This meant the Herd started the last 20 minutes on the powerplay and had a lot of good pressure but failed to score.

However, they did on their next man advantage, after a lovely move saw Tait slide the puck out wide to Klejna and he in turn found Morris unmarked in front of the goal.

The Bison were given another powerplay soon after as Webster’s awful hit drew just a late hit minor.

The sides then traded penalties and during the time when the teams played four-on-four they both scored.

The Raiders netted first thanks to a lovely solo strike from Jake Sylvester, before the Herd replied as Marek Malinsky tried to put the puck at the near post, but it came off the pads of Michael Gray straight to Harding to slot home.

After the game Bison player/coach Tait said: “It is great to get a four-point weekend. In Swindon it was probably our most complete game of the season, while against the Raiders we were a bit ropey, but we will take the points.”

The Bison have no game this evening, they are next in action at home to the Sheffield Steeldogs on Saturday.