Basingstoke Bison 7, Edinburgh Capitals 2

THE Basingstoke Bison skated to a comfortable win on Saturday - only to find out that, on the same night, their play-off rivals, London Racers, had won 2-1 in Sheffield.

The Herd had their top line of Shawn Maltby, Doug Sheppard and Mike Ford firing on all cylinders, as they scored six of the seven home goals.

However, the Bison did not have things all their own way and they fell behind at 3:18 when a cross from the impressive Dino Bauba was put away at the far post by Edinburgh's man-of-the-match Miroslav Droppa on the powerplay.

The Bison drew level in the eighth minute when their man-of-the-match Maltby dispatched a Sheppard cross, after being left unmarked.

After that, good chances fell evenly to both sides, with Bison netminder Ronnie Vogel doing well to save from Bauba and Marty Johnson in separate attacks, while home defenceman Brent Pope hit the crossbar with a shot.

Within two minutes of the restart, the Herd took a lead they were never to surrender. Duncan Dalmao skated into the Capitals' end zone and sent a nice drop pass to Maltby. He, in turn, found Sheppard, whose shot was saved, but Ford put away the rebound.

It became 3-1 at 23:34 when Sheppard robbed Rastislav Bohme by the net and fed Ford, who applied the finish.

Soon after, Edinburgh's Martin Cingel hit a post, before his side reduced the lead to a single goal.

Throughout the night, the visitors showed some great passing moves and, from one of them, Steven Lynch and Craig Wilson combined for Neil Hay to score.

The Herd restored their two-goal advantage at 37:38 as Caps netminder Dave Trofimenkoff saved Tony Redmond's first shot and then Steve Gallace's follow-up effort, before Jerry Galway fired over the helpless goalie.

In the opening minute of the final session, a Dalmao shot came off the pads of the visitors' goalie and trickled agonisingly inches wide of the post.

The home side did add to their tally at 48:15 when Maltby skated on to a Ford pass and rifled a shot over the shoulder of Trofimenkoff.

Next to get on the scoresheet was Sheppard. He looked to fire hard at goal but, instead, placed his shot to fool the goalie and make it 6-2.

At that point, the visitors changed their netminders, with Scottish goalie Ryan Ford taking over between the pipes.

He stood no chance with the final goal of the game, which was the best of the night. Sheppard turned provider for Maltby to unleash a thunderbolt which flew into the net to complete his hat-trick.

Delighted Basingstoke general manager and head coach Mark Bernard said: "The two points is what we were looking for and my top line tonight was fantastic and pounced on their opportunities.

"My other two forward lines also had their chances, so it was a very pleasing performance from all."

Scoring, Bison: Maltby 3+2, Ford 2+3, Sheppard 1+4, Galway 1+1, Dalmao, Gallace, Redmond 0+1; Capitals: N Hay, Droppa 1+0, Wilson, Lynch, Bauba, Cingel 0+1.

Shots on goal: Vogel 35, Trofimenkoff 46, Ford 7.

Penalties: Bison 10min, Capitals 6.