Basingstoke Bison 3, London Racers 3 (after overtime)

FIREWORKS came early to Basingstoke in a stormy affair that saw London Racers bench coach Roger Black thrown out of the game.

In a bizarre incident at 45:19, Jeff Ewasko swept the puck home from a super Steve Ellis cross. As the home fans got to their feet to celebrate the goal, the game carried on for a few seconds.

Referee Matt Thompson then consulted goal judge Peter Goodchild, who confirmed the score, and, after a debate with his linesman, the goal was given to make it 3-2.

However, before the game could restart, Black had run round from the visitors' bench to behind the goal to have his own word on the matter. As a result, he was duly dismissed on a game misconduct charge.

Before the match, the home side were forced to reshuffle their line-up as captain Shawn Maltby was unable to play due to a neck injury.

Jeff Corey, taking his place on an all-Canadian forward line, did an excellent job, while Dominic Hopkins moved from defence to attack, joining forwards Lewis Buckman and Shaun Thompson.

This basement battle was always going to be a physical affair and Ewasko's crunching hit on Jason Robinson early in the first period set the tone as the door flew open under the force.

Referee Thompson seemingly lost his whistle, but he finally found it at 9:50 and again 38 seconds later to give the Bison a two-man advantage.

The home side made no mistake as man-of-the-match Duncan Dalmao fired home with a super low shot from the blue line at 10:43.

It was no more than the home side deserved as they had the better of the opening session.

After the break, Sylvian Daigle in the London goal was a busy man, facing a lot of rubber as he made saves from Steve Ellis, Jeff Ewasko and Mike Ford.

At 27:20, Doug Sheppard hit the post as he looked set to score, but a nice pass from Shaun Thompson found Dalmao and he dispatched another low bullet of a shot from the blue line to make it 2-0 at 29:34.

A minute later, London's Jeremy Cornish tried to get his side going as he baited Ewasko on the sidelines.

The exchange of words by the two benches did the trick and the Racers' comeback started at 32:35, as former Bison Richard Hargreaves' first shot was blocked. Mark Gouett followed up with the rebound to score.

As the period came to a close, Tony Redmond and Hargreaves clashed on the boards, both earning a four-minute rest in the sin bin.

The final period saw the visitors more fired up and they had their best spell of the game.

Dusan Halloun should have scored at 42:51, but missed the puck with an open goal begging from a Steve Moria cross.

London were level three minutes later as man-of-the-match Ian McIntyre won the puck in the corner and fed Jim Vickers at the blue line. His shot came off the pads of Bison netminder Ronnie Vogel and Jason Hewitt netted the rebound.

The Bison response was immediate as Ellis skated down the right wing and his accurate cross was swept home by Ewasko just 17 seconds later.

The action was coming thick and fast and 12 seconds later London had the puck in the net, but the goal was rightly disallowed as Yannick Trembley had taken the goal off its moorings.

In frustration, Trembley smacked his stick on the ice and it shattered into three pieces, earning him a 10-minute misconduct penalty.

The visitors were then given a lifeline as Bison Ricky Skene cut JJ McGrath's face with his stick and was given a four-minute penalty at 48:17.

The first two minutes were killed, but London eventually equalised as McIntyre tapped home the puck from the goal crease after Vickers' shot had hit the post.

With no further scoring, the game went into overtime, with Ellis and Corey going closest for the home side and Halloun and Moria for the visitors.

Bison general manager and head coach Mark Bernard said: "I thought tonight was a great game from both sides and a draw was a fair result.

"That now means we have got points in four of our last five games, so everything is moving in the right direction."

Talking about the Roger Black incident, Bernard said: "It can be frustrating behind the bench, but to do something like that is embarrassing for the sport."

The Bison are back in action at home on Wednesday night (8pm) when they take on the Cardiff Devils in their opening Rink Cup Challenge fixture.

Any member of the Basingstoke junior development can watch the game for £2, as long as they are accompanied by a full-paying adult.

Scoring; Bison: Dalmao 2+0, Ewasko 1+0, Thompson, Sheppard 0+1; Racers: Gouett, Hewitt, McIntyre 1+0, Vickers 0+2, Hargreaves 0+1. Shots on Goal: Vogel 35, Daigle 43. Penalties: Bison 14min, Racers 44.