Basingstoke Bison 2, Coventry Blaze 6

NATIONAL Hockey League star Kirk Maltby was the guest of honour for the Bison game on Saturday night, but vistors Coventry spoiled the party.

Maltby was in town to watch his younger brother, Bison captain Shawn, who played despite suffering food poisoning.

Hundreds of hockey fans went home happy as Maltby senior, one of the top players in the world, signed autographs in the period breaks.

The NHL star said: "It's always nice to come and watch your brother play as, with him playing in Britain and me living in America, it is difficult.

"He has felt ill all day, so he did well to play tonight. I enjoyed the game and, of course, I would have liked to have seen the Bison win, but then losing to the top team is not so bad."

Coventry never looked back after being given a penalty shot by referee Nigel Boniface, two minutes into the second session.

Blaze's Joel Poirier latched on to a long pass down the middle from Ashley Tait and was then sent crashing into the net by Doug Sheppard.

It was a clear penalty, but a penalty shot may have been harsh. The home fans and Bison coach Mark Bernard clearly thought it definitely was not.

It was the first time in the match that Boniface raised his arm for a penalty and, after awarding the shot, he dismissed Bernard from the home bench.

Talking about the incident, the Bison boss said: "I felt he got his shot away, so it should have only been a holding call. I don't want to say anything more about the officiating."

Poirier converted the penalty shot with a nice backhand finish before Coventry took control.

The Bison had the better of the first period, with Mike Ford firing a shot off the crossbar at 3:40.

Sheppard then went inches wide, after he picked up a Maltby rebound, before opening the scoring when he netted his own rebound at 16:13.

The Blaze drew level with their penalty shot and then man-of-the-match Adam Calder, who earlier in the session crashed a shot off the underside of the crossbar, converted a Dan Carlson pass.

A strike from Coventry's Graham Schlender looked to have ended the contest at 36:42 but, just 16 seconds later, a great passing move from the Bison British forward line saw Tony Redmond and Shaun Thompson combine for their man-of-the-match Greg Wood to score.

Any hopes of a comeback were dashed within a minute as a superb passing move by the visitors saw Calder make it 4-2.

In the final period, both sides had chances, but it was only Coventry who added to their tally. Schlender netted his second, scoring from close range from a Doug Schueller pass at 52:15 for their fifth goal.

Frustrations boiled over a minute later as Owen Walter clashed with Blaze hard-man Andre Payette and came off second best. Both had to sit out penalties.

It was left to Tait to complete the scoring, slotting home Calder's shot which came off the back-board straight to him.

Bernard said: "I thought my defence tonight was awful. They were weak and just letting guys skate right past them. It was a very disappointing night."

Scoring, Bison: Wood, Sheppard 1+0, Thompson, Redmond 0+1; Blaze: Calder 2+1, Schlender 2+0, Tait, Poirier 1+0, Schueller, Carlson 0+2, Cowley 0+1. Shots on goal: Vogel 45, Lehman 42. Penalties: Bison 30 min, Blaze 16.