Basingstoke Bison 3, Cardiff Devils 3 (after overtime)

THE Wella Bison maintained their unbeaten home record in 2004, but they should have taken both points instead of just one from Saturday night's game against Cardiff.

With 10 minutes left in the match, the home side led 3-1 only for the visitors to score twice and send the game into overtime, which saw no further scoring.

Disappointed Bison player-coach Steve Moria said: "We played well tonight, but at 3-1 we should have won the game.

"We made mistakes in our own end and have been punished for them. It is a point lost by us and a point gained by them."

The Herd had British forward Norman Pinnington, released by London earlier this season, back in a Basingstoke shirt for the first time in 11 years, along with Peterborough's Jesse Hammill. The visitors, meanwhile, gave a debut to Canadian defenceman Jason Becker.

The home side had the better of the early stages of the first period, helped by two powerplays.

On the first, Moria was denied by a point-blank save from Jason Cugnet as he tried to convert a Joe Ciccarello cross.

The visitors were on top for the remainder of the period - again helped by two powerplays - and they even had the puck in the net.

However, the effort was disallowed as Matt Myers kicked it in after Jason Stone's shot had hit the post.

The second session saw the home side open the better of the two sides. They made their third powerplay of the night pay as captain Phil Roy fired in from the blue line on the right at 22:25.

Darren Hurley then had a couple of chances before Ed Patterson forced the puck home at 28:32 from his own rebound.

This was also disallowed as he broke his stick with the first shot and played on, earning him an illegal-equipment penalty.

Despite being a man down, it was Cardiff who went closest, with Curtis Cruickshank saving from Jeff Burgoyne.

Later in the period, when the Bison were short-handed, Dave Geris forced Cugnet into a save. Soon after, Ciccarello tested the Cardiff goalie.

The final talking point of the session came at 38:26 when, for the second week running, the visitors asked for the curve of Martin Filip's stick to be measured.

The Devils already had a man advantage but the ploy back-fired as Filip's stick was declared legal, so the visitors were handed a delay-of-game penalty.

The final period got off to the best possible start for the Bison as Richard Hargreaves scored his first goal since the opening weekend on the backhand from close-range, converting a Blake Sorensen cross at 42:17.

The visitors hit back with Jason Stone's blue-line shot through traffic getting them on the scoreboard at 45:15.

The Bison reply was swift as, 15 seconds later, man-of-the-match Sorensen - promoted to the first line after Matt Reid's departure - set up Moria to score.

A minute later, Hurley was denied with both a shot and rebound before Cardiff pulled a goal back when an Ivan Matulik shot hit the top corner.

At 50:56, tempers flared behind the net as Geris took exception to a Russ Romaniuk check which sent the Devil into the back of the net and team-mate Phil Hill jumped in to have a go at Geris.

This earned Hill two minutes and Geris a four-minute rest - both for roughing.

Once again, Bison failure to clear the puck resulted in an equaliser as Romaniuk picked up the loose puck and waltzed in to score at 53:34.

As the clock ticked down, the nearest anyone came to scoring was when Jeff Brown's shot hit the crossbar in the final two minutes.

The five-minute overtime period had both sets of fans on the edge of their seats as play went from end to end but no-one managed to score.

Last night, the Bison faced the Devils again - this time in Cardiff - before travelling to Nottingham tomorrow.

Scoring, Bison: Moria 1+1, Hargreaves, Roy 1+0, Sorensen 0+3, Vahanen 0+2. Devils: Stone, Romaniuk, Matulik 1+0, Patterson, Sacratini 0+2, Burgoyne 0+1.

Shots on goal: Cruickshank 33, Cugnet 36. Penalties: Bison 16min, Cardiff 12.