Cardiff Devils 2, Basingstoke Bison 3

CARDIFF may have had Manchester's returning duo Ivan Matulik and Stevie Lyle in their line-up, but the Bison had the last laugh, taking the points with a 3-2 win.

Having killed off an early penalty, the Bison were then given a powerplay after Devils man-of-the-match Blair Scott clashed with Nick Cross. Scott picked up six minutes for this troubles (two for cross-checking and four for roughing), while Cross picked up four for roughing.

The only goal of the session arrived at 19:04 as Mike Ellis scored a nice unassisted strike.

The second session saw the home side come back into the contest as Kurt Walsh scored, finishing a move involving Russ Romaniuk and Jim Brown at 26:23.

The same player gave the Devils the lead at 37:36, only for the Bison to equalise with a stroke of good fortune, as Ellis caused confusion and the puck was deflected in off the back pads of Lyle with 14 seconds left in the period.

Just four minutes after the restart, Russ Romaniuk was sent to the sin-bin for interference on Scott Hay.

The visitors made the most of the advantage as Daryl Lavoie fired home the game winner, assisted by Steve Moria and Chris Crombie.

As the game came to a close, Chris Crombie picked up a high sticks penalty, and Cardiff doubled their man advantage on the ice when they pulled netminder Lyle in the final two minutes.

However, the Bison stood firm and made it a double winning weekend.

Scoring; Devils: Walsh 2+0, Romaniuk, Brown 0+1; Bison: Ellis 2+0, Lavoie 1+0, Moria, Crombie 0+1. Shots on Goal: Lyle 31, Hay 31. Penalties: Devils 10min, Bison 12