BASINGSTOKE Bison forward Doug Sheppard is expected to win his battle and be fit for this weekend's games against a beefed-up Nottingham Panthers at home tomorrow before a long road trip to Dundee Stars on Sunday.

The Herd's leading goalscorer picked up a leg injury in the 6-3 defeat in Coventry last Sunday, but should take his place on the top Bison scoring line tomorrow, against a Panthers outfit looking for revenge after a 5-3 defeat in the Lace City earlier this month.

Adding more spice to the encounter are the additions of NHL defencemen Ian Moran and Nick Boynton to the Panthers team.

Moran was expected to make his debut last night in Dundee. He has played 476 games for Pittsburgh and spent the last two seasons with the Boston Bruins.

Boynton is due to fly in today, and also played for the Bruins last season.

Bison general manager and head coach Mark Bernard said: "We know it is going to be tough against Nottingham, even more so with the number of new guys in their line-up."

Taking about the Dundee game and the chance for revenge for a recent overtime defeat, Bernard said: "Everyone takes the British National League teams for granted, but they are good hockey teams and we will go there knowing it will not be easy."

Coventry Blaze 6, Basingstoke Bison 3

Steve Gallace scored his first goal for the Basingstoke Bison against his former club, but it was all in vain last Sunday in Coventry as the Herd lost 6-3.

The Bison, 7-2 winners on Saturday over Edinburgh, opened the better and took the lead at 3:10, despite Basingstoke forward Tony Redmond sitting in the sin bin.

A long pass from Brent Pope was latched onto by the Herd's captain Shawn Maltby, and he skated in to beat Jody Lehman.

The lead was doubled at 11:43, as man-of-the-match Mike Ford passed out from behind the net to the in-rushing Duncan Dalmao, who fired over the Blaze goalie.

The home side then opened their account 20 seconds later as Tom Watkins' slapshot beat Ronnie Vogel.

The final penalty of the opening session saw Coventry's Andre Payette depart for roughing.

The Bison made the most of the extra man as Gallace found the net with a blue line shot for a 3-1 lead.

The home side pulled a goal back at 37:08 as Watkins had an easy tap in from Adam Calder.

The game was tied nine seconds before the buzzer with a fluke goal as former Bison Jozef Lukac sent a deflected shot from his own blue line between the skates of Vogel and into the net.

After the break, another ex-Basingstoke player in Doug Schueller fired in from the blue line to give Coventry the lead just 70 seconds after the restart.

The final penalty of the contest came at 50:30 by Jerry Galway, who joined Ricky Skene, and Coventry made the most of the two-man advantage as Payette netted a Schueller rebound.

In the final minute, man-of-the-match Lukac completed the scoring with a blue-line blast into the corner of the net.