Basingstoke Bison 5, London Racers 4 (after overtime)

THE Wella Bison collected the two points they deserved on Saturday night, but they left it late - tying the game with 24.9 seconds left, before winning the contest 13 seconds into overtime against bottom-placed London Racers.

The Bison victory ended a seven-game winless streak in their home rink. A delighted player/coach Steve Moria said: "This game was a pretty one-sided affair. We outshot them heavily and a great team effort has given us the deserved win."

He added: "At 4-3 down the guys never gave up and it has to be our best performance since the big win over Belfast."

Bison man-of-the-match Dean Skinns was in goal from the start of the contest for the injured Curtis Cruickshank, but after just 29 seconds London were in the lead, as Mojmir Mosil was allowed to break free down the left wing to score.

The Bison made the most of their attacking opportunities, often sweeping forward in numbers and leaving just one defenceman to cope with any break outs, and it was the Racers' man-of-the-match, Evan Lindsay, who was the busier of the two goalies.

The home side's reunited line of Steve Moria, Joe Ciccarello and Matt Reid caused the visitors problems all night and it was no surprise when they combined for the equaliser at 11:57.

Ciccarello had time to pick up his own rebound and was able to skate around the back of the net to set up Matt Reid for an easy tap in.

The best chance in the remainder of the first period fell to the visitors as, once again, they broke through the home defence. However, on this occasion Doug Schuller was able to slide across the ice to stop Mosil getting a killer pass away to Reine Rauhala on an odd-man breakaway.

The second session saw London unable to break out of their own end for long periods as the Bison came to terms with the tactics that the visitors were employing.

However, for all the pressure that the Bison mounted in the opening 10 minutes of the period, the scoreboard did not move until a moment of true magic from Kim Vahanen.

The Finnish defenceman skated in from the London blue line, showing the characteristic good stick-handling skills of a Scandinavian, before firing past Lindsay for his first goal of the season at 30:19.

Soon after, Moria was set free on a one-on-one with the visiting 'keeper, but his shot over the bar proved costly as Rauhala was given time to skate in a rare excursion into the Bison end to net the equaliser.

However, 40 seconds later the home side were back in front as Ciccarello burst down the left wing to cross for Moria to fire home before hitting the post seconds later.

Referee Simon Kirkham then gave London a late Christmas present - 103 seconds with a two-man advantage.

This forced London to come forward and they made the most of it as Marc Long scored. Seconds after the Bison returning to full strength, Rauhala made it 4-3 at 44:43.

Suddenly London looked like a team that wanted to win and Skinns came up with a number of good saves as the Bison were finding it hard to get their offence firing again.

With six minutes left they reduced to playing their six best forwards and began to pile on the pressure once again, but the puck still wouldn't go in the net.

With a minute left, Skinns was pulled for the extra skater and Reid finally got the deserved equalising goal at 59:35.

This took the game into overtime which lasted just 13 seconds as Martin Filip's shot came off the pads of Lindsay. Filip picked up the rebound and fed Schuller to fire in his first goal for the club.

Scoring; Bison: Reid 2+1, Schuller, Vahanen, Moria 1+0, Ciccarello 0+3, Filip, Roy 0+1; Racers: Rauhala 2+2, Long 1+1, Musil 1+0, Konsti 0+2, Robinson, Scott 0+1. Shots on Goal: Skinns 30, Lindsay 63. Penalties: Bison 10min, Racers 10.