THE Basingstoke Bison continued their winning start to 2020 with a 3-1 victory over the visiting Peterborough Phantoms last night.

The Herd were minus British forwards George Norcliffe, Oscar Evans and Sam Talbot for the game.

The first major action was at 5:33, as Bison’s Liam Morris and Phantoms’ Tom Norton clashed, which earned Morris eight minutes in the sin bin, six for fighting and two for slashing, while Norton picked up four for fighting.

This put the visitors on the powerplay and Alex Mettam came up with several big saves.

At 13:06, it was the turn of the home side to be given the man advantage. Adam Jones hit the post and then man of the match Adam Harding scored as he converted a great pass from Ashley Tait.

The second session saw Peterborough level the game on the powerplay, as man of the match Ales Padelek netted from James Ferrera.

A great save late in the period from Peterborough’s Jordan Marr denied Sean Norris which kept the score at 1-1 at the second break.

The Bison retook their lead at 48:29, as Bayley Harewood scored with a goal assisted by Harding.

As the visitors looked to pull their goalie, Richard Bordowski sealed the win for the home side with a lovely solo goal.

On New Year’s Day, the Bison enjoyed a thrilling 4-3 penalty shot victory at the Swindon Wildcats.

This was despite going 2-0 down after Edgars Bebris scored twice in the first 10 minutes, his second being an excellent breakaway strike shorthanded.

The Herd hauled themselves back into the contest thanks to Michal Klejna, as he stole the puck off Aaron Nell to score with 30 seconds left in the session.

The Bison then levelled the game on the powerplay thanks to a lovely blue line bullet from Jones.

Swindon once more re-took the lead at 32:15 as Nell fired in from the right wing, but former Wildcat Harding tied the game up in the final period sending the contest into overtime.

The Bison had the better of the extra session, but were unable to find the winning goal, so the game was decided on penalty shots.

Swindon’s Chris Jones took the first one but failed to score unlike Klejna.

Two goal-hero Bebris then was unable to convert the next home side’s shot, which gave Norris the chance to win the game with the next penalty shot which he did.

This evening, the Bison have a tough away trip to Sheffield Steeldogs.