THE Basingstoke Bison were crowned league champions last night, after beating the Cardiff Fire 8-1 in their final game of the campaign.

This was despite the heroics of former Basingstoke Buffalo goalie Jordan Lawday, who faced 81 shots on the night.

In the first period alone the Herd racked up a shot count of 24 to two, but went in at the break level at 1-1.

Aaron Connolly opened the scoring at 10:29 assisted by Roman Malinik, before Tamas Elias levelled things shorthanded.

The Bison knowing they needed to win to take the title, made sure of the victory, with four unanswered goals in the second session.

Stuart Mogg scored the first from Malinik and Sutton and then Malinik netted a third as Sutton collected another helper.

The Herd extended their lead to 5-1, by the buzzer thanks to a brace from Tomas Karpov as Ivan Antonov, Sutton and Dan Davies picked up the assists.

The third period saw the visitors score three more times, with Antonov getting the first from Josh Smith and Kurt Reynolds.

Reynolds and Malinik then combined for Connolly to grab his second at 46:40.

It was left to Smith to complete the scoring with the Bison's eighth on the powerplay in the final two minutes of the game.

The Herd now go search of the treble starting with the Autumn Cup final second leg on Friday (7.45pm) in Swindon and then on Saturday (6.30pm) they start their play-off campaign at home to Invicta.