Basingstoke Bison 3 Cardiff Devils 1

TWO goals in the final five minutes secured the Basingstoke Bison a 3-1 win over the Cardiff Devils in a highly-entertaining game.

Victory came after the visitors finally had to pay for their devilish behaviour, giving the home side a two-man advantage for more than two minutes.

Mike Ellis scored the second Bison goal at 55:12 from close range and Steve Moria made sure of victory 27 seconds later as he converted a Daryl Lavoie shot which flew off the backboard to him.

Saturday's win was even better considering the side were minus Neil Liddiard and Paul Berrington on international duty for Great Britain.

Player-coach Moria said: "We played with a lot of heart tonight and every player wanted to win."

In the first period of the contest both sides had chances before Cardiff opened the scoring at 15:45 as Mike Ware forced his way in from the blue line and crossed for Kurt Walsh to net at the far post.

The Wella-backed side hit back, taking advantage of the only powerplay of the period as Ryan Aldridge's cross was converted by Marc Levers at 19:26 for his first league goal of the season.

In a goalless second period Ivan Matulik looked set to score when sent clear, but man-of-the-match Scott Hay came up with his best of a number of great saves.

Having allowed Cardiff to get away with a number of cheap shots, the home supporters showed their displeasure when the impressive Matt Cot departed for hooking Walsh, when it looked like the Devil had tripped over the blue line.

This gave the Devils 35 seconds with a two-man advantage as Chris Crombie sat out a 2+10 penalty for cross-checking from behind, but they failed to score.

The final session was an end-to-end affair with the Bison leaving it late to take all the points.

Scoring; Bison: Moria, Ellis 1+1, Levers 1+0, Aldridge, Cross, Crombie, Lavoie 0+1. Devils: Walsh 1+0, Ware 0+1. Shots on goal: Hay 40, Lyle 49. Penalties: Bison 22min, Devils 18.