Belfast Giants 0, Basingstoke Bison 2

THE Basingstoke Bison's season took another giant step forward on Saturday night as they turned the form book upside down and recorded their first win of the campaign, with victory over Elite League leaders Belfast Giants.

The Herd carried on their excellent form from last week against Cardiff. That game only saw them collect one point, but this time they were rewarded with both.

Mike Ford and Doug Sheppard were the Bison goal-scoring heroes, while netminder Ronnie Vogel recorded a 24 shot shut-out.

Delighted Bison general manager and head coach Mark Bernard said: "Once again, we have turned in a great team performance. I cannot single out one player tonight - we were solid throughout the whole team.

"It is a great feeling to have won our first league game of the season and that can only help the confidence of the guys."

Having seen the Basingstoke side written off and described in a local Belfast paper as the whipping boys of the league, Saturday's victory was even more sweeter for Bernard and the Herd.

The Bison boss said: "I think the guys were out to prove a point, and they did!"

From the opening face-off, the visitors had a physical approach and the only major incident of the first period came when the Bison's Jeff Ewasko and Giants' Mel Angelstad clashed.

This resulted in both of them getting four minutes in the sin-bin for roughing.

The second session saw the Bison become the first to go short-handed as Jeff Corey departed for an illegal equipment call at 23:02.

However, despite being a man down, 47 seconds later the visitors' man-of-the-match, Mike Ford, scored an excellent goal from an Ewasko pass.

Two more Belfast powerplays followed, but both were killed off, and then at 33:20 Belfast's player/coach Tony Hand was binned for hooking.

The Bison were not about to let the advantage pass them by and Doug Sheppard finished a nice move, involving Ford and Shawn Maltby, just 31 seconds into the powerplay.

The final session saw plenty more penalties, and at 51:21, Giants' Diamuid Kelly and Bison Duncan Dalmao both received four minutes for roughing.

They were followed by Belfast's Angelstad, who received a 10-minute misconduct penalty for dropping his gloves.

As the game entered the final two minutes, referee Andy Carson sent Bison Owen Walter to the sin-bin, giving the home side their tenth powerplay of the night.

However, Vogel was not about to be denied his first shut-out in Britain, and the club's first since December last year.

Last night in Basingstoke, the Bison were looking to extend their winning run as they faced the Fife Flyers. See Friday's Gazette for a full match report.