Hull Stingrays 2, Basingstoke Bison 3

THE Basingstoke Bison cut the gap between themselves and their play-off rivals the London Racers to five points after an excellent victory in Hull on Sunday night.

Recent signing Pavol Rieciciar scored his first-ever goal for the Herd to open the scoring at 3:47, finishing a move involving man-of-the-match Jeff Ewasko and Tony Redmond.

The home side hit back at 10:26, as former Bison Dru Burgess latched onto a long pass from Pavel Gomenyuk and beat Ronnie Vogel one-on-one.

Hull then took the lead two minutes later, as David Pyatt found Scott Wray, and his centred pass was neatly put away by Tim McKay.

The second session saw the visitors dominate for long periods, with both Doug Sheppard and Jerry Galway going close.

Hull's Wray then had a shot deflected, which forced Vogel into a smart save on the 30-minute mark.

The Bison equaliser came at 36:24 as Duncan Dalmao's blue line shot went through a sea of bodies and hit the back of the net.

Soon after, the first penalty of the game was called by referee Paul Staniforth, as Ewasko departed for slashing Kevin Phillips.

On the powerplay, Vogel made another good save to deny Burgess from close range.

As the period clock ran down, a minor scrum saw Brent Pope and Mike Ford both pick up roughing penalties, while Hull's David Phillips got away with no penalty at all.

This gave the Stingrays a two-man advantage to start the final session, which saw the visitors defend well.

The Bison then went looking for the winner and wave after wave of attacks went unrewarded, until Doug Sheppard fired home from a great pass from captain Shawn Maltby.

That meant Hull were forced to look for an equaliser and Wray missed a great chance as the game entered the final two minutes.

With 35 seconds left on the clock, Hull's Vladmir Chernenko and Bison's Maltby clashed - earning both players four minutes each for roughing.

Soon after, Kudrna was pulled for the extra skater, but the Bison remained firm to claim the vital win.

Scoring: Stingrays: Burgess, McKay 1+0, Wray, Pyatt, Gomenyuk 0+1; Bison: Rieciciar, Dalmao, Sheppard 1+0, Maltby, Ford 0+2, Ewasko, Redmond 0+1. Shots on Goal: Kudrna 38, Vogel 24. Penalties: Stringrays 4, Bison 10.