Basingstoke Bison 3, Nottingham Panthers 2

THE Wella Bison dented the Championship ambitions of the visiting Nottingham Panthers on Sunday, by beating the second-placed side 3-2, despite the Panthers clawing their way back into the contest.

Home man-of-the-match Curtis Cruickshank was quickly into action as he saved a one-on-one from Kim Ahlroos after just 27 seconds.

In an open first period, both teams had plenty of chances, but only one goal was scored, and that went to the Bison.

Panthers' Mikko Koivunoro departed on the first penalty of the night for boarding Matt Reid, although he deserved a lot more than just two minutes.

However, Reid got his revenge as he fired home a rebound after an excellent surging drive to the net by Joe Ciccarello.

The second period really saw the Bison put their stamp on the game, but not before Cruickshank had once again denied Ahlroos.

The home side made it 2-0 on 31 minutes as Reid skated down the left wing and drilled a shot past Niklas Sundberg.

Just 64 seconds later, the Herd netted their third as Christian Widauer's shot was half saved by Sundberg before the puck dropped into the goal crease, with Martin Filip the first to react by firing it into the roof of the net.

At this point, Nottingham coach Paul Adey called a time out to try to rally his shell-shocked troops.

The visitors were given a lifeline soon after, as Michael Wales went to the sin bin. During the powerplay, Nottingham man-of-the-match Braine Thompson hit the post with a low shot.

The final period saw the Panthers draw blood as Calle Carlsson was credited with the goal at 42:23 despite the home side's appeals that the net was off its moorings.

Two minutes later, things turned ugly and it was no surprise that Nottingham pen-alty king John Craighead was at the centre of it. For once he joined three other players in the sin bin - two from each side for roughing.

Disaster struck later in the period as Mark Cadotte struck shorthanded at 51:33.

Two minutes later the visitors called for a stick measure on the curve of Filip's stick, which proved successful, and Carlsson had the puck in the net - but this time it was disallowed as the net had again come away from the moorings.

Sundberg was pulled with 77 seconds left, and Reid just missed the empty net while Cruickshank denied Carlsson twice in the final minute to secure a win.

Scoring; Bison: Reid 2+0, Filip 1+0, Ciccarello 0+2, Moria, Schuller, Widauer 0+1; Panthers: Cadotte, Carlsson 1+0, Clarke, Struch, Thompson 0+1. Shots on goal: Cruickshank 35 Sundberg 33. Penalties: Bison 16min, Panthers 16.

Great Britain under-20s, including Bison defenceman James Hutchinson, finished their gold-winning World Championship division two campaign with a 100 per cent record after beating Croatia 8-1.

Earlier in the five-match series GB had beaten Lithuania 7-3, with Hutchinson picking up four assists. He scored the second in the 14-0 win over South Africa.

Victories over South Korea 2-0 and Serbia 7-1 completed a brilliant set of results.