THE Herd must now put Tuesday night's disappointment behind them as they face a make-or-break final weekend of Elite League action.

Basingstoke go head-to-head with the Edinburgh Capitals for the final prized play-off spot, and it could all come down to a winner-takes-all clash in Scotland on Sunday night.

The Scottish outfit currently occupy the final play-off place, by virtue of more regulation wins over the Bison. Both sides have 37 points from their campaign so far.

The Caps play away at Sheffield on Saturday night before their showdown with the Herd on Sunday.

The Bison have three games left, starting tonight (7.30pm) with a trip to Dundalk to play the Belfast Giants. On Saturday night (6.30pm), the Coventry Blaze are in town and Basingstoke will hope to repeat the 4-2 victory in the British Knockout Cup final first leg. Then on Sunday (6pm), the Herd travel north to Edinburgh for the final game of the league campaign.

The reward for the team that finishes eighth is a two-legged home-and-away quarter-final play-off tie in the last weekend of March against Coventry. The winners of that will book a place at Nottingham's NIC for a one-off semi-final on Saturday, April 5.

Bison head coach Aldridge said: "We want to make the play-offs. That has been our aim all season. I think no team is going to look forward to playing us.

"If it ends up being decided in Edinburgh, they will have the advantage of being on home ice, but we have won there before and I can't see why we can't do it again."

If the Bison and Caps finish the weekend level on points, then regulation wins over 60 minutes is the first criteria used to split the teams, and the Scottish outfit hold a 14-13 advantage at the moment.

The next factor would be all wins (regulation and overtime) which again sees Edinburgh have the current edge at 17-16.

If this still fails to produce a winner, it will come down to results between the two teams - and the Bison have already won that battle thanks to three regulation wins.