THE Basingstoke Bison are very much in the driving seat to make the final of the South One play-offs, after winning the first leg of their semi-final 7-4 in London.

The Herd were quickly out of the blocks for the second week running, as Josh Smith scored after 38 seconds, from a lovely pass from man of the match Ivan Antonov.

After this the period was an even affair and London levelled from man of the match JJ Pitchley, with just one second remaining in the session.

London man of the match Oleg Lascenko then struck 63 seconds into the second period to make it 2-1.

The Bison equalised on their first powerplay of the middle session, after Grant Rounding tipped home a shot from Dan Davies.

Then two minutes later, Tomas Karpov sent Davies clear and he beat Michael Gray to make it 3-2.

Once again, the Raiders hit back, as Lascenko levelled things within a minute.

The Herd then scored twice in the space of 39 seconds to take the score to 5-3 at 37:46.

Aaron Connolly scored the first with a nice finish at the post and then Karpov with an excellent wrist shot got the other.

However, the Raiders managed to stay in touch, before the second buzzer, after Marek Nahlik tipped home a Matt Turner shot.

London trailing by one goal were given a great chance to equalise in the final period, when Davies was penalised for goalie interference.

Shorthanded the Bison broke away and Ryan Sutton was hauled down by Nahlik, but the import never made it to the sin bin as Roman Malinik scored on the delayed penalty.

With five minutes left in the contest, Malinik scored again at the near post to make it 7-4.

This was not the last action of the game as at 57:29, Bison defenceman Dan Scott was dismissed on a match penalty for tripping JJ Pitchley, who was stretchered off the ice.

This left the visitors to see out the game shorthanded, but their three-goal lead remained in-tact.

The second leg of the semi-final is this evening in Basingstoke and starts at 5.30pm.

The winners will face either Swindon or Peterborough next weekend.

In the first leg of their semi-final, Swindon won on home ice 4-2.