Basingstoke Bison 1 Dundee Stars 5

STEVE Moria returned to the Bison line-up on Saturday but was helpless as reigning league champions Dundee maintained a 100 per cent league record.

The visitors scored three goals on the powerplay as penalties once again played a part in the Wella-backed side's downfall.

Player-coach Moria said: "We matched them five-on-five but we took stupid penalties and against Dundee, who by the end of the season will have the powerplay record, you can't afford to do that."

The league leaders got off to a dream start, opening the scoring on the second shift of the match as Tony Hand found Ken Priestlay on the right wing and his pass inside saw Teeder Wynne score through the narrowest of angles.

After that, the period was an even affair with Stars man-of-the-match Stephen Murphy keeping the Bison at bay.

The Stars second goal of the period came with a man advantage after the Bison had killed off 55 seconds of five-on-three, Priestlay netting at the far post from a Martin Wiita blue-line pass.

The on-ice officials were reduced to two at 16:30 when Rene Ross got caught on the boards in front of the Dundee bench in a three-man pile-up.

After the break, the Bison went looking for a way past Murphy with former Star Paul Berrington, Moria and Marc Levers all going close.

However, disaster struck at 34:18 as Daryl Lavoie miss-controlled the puck in front of his own bench and Hand skated away to score one-on-one against Scott Hay.

The lead became 4-0 at 37:55 as the Stars scored on another powerplay - this time from Jan Mikel with a sweet blue-line shot.

The final session opened with Stars' Martin Hughes taking exception to a Ryan Aldridge elbow and returning it with a punch. The pair then squared up with Hughes sending Aldridge to the ice and both players earned six minutes in penalties.

A minute later, Bison man-of-the-match Peter Campbell got his deserved goal for the night as he netted at the far post after good work from Mike Ellis.

Four minutes later, Nick Cross' shot went under the pads of Murphy and was laying in the goal crease but referee Matt Thompson, thinking it was under the netminder, blew his whistle to end the play.

The final home penalty of the night saw the Stars make it 5-1 as Wynne directed a Hughes blue-line shot into the roof of the net.

A minute later, Joe Greener came within inches of scoring his first league goal for the club and the Bison looked to scored a second goal with 38.5 seconds left.

A great rush by Campbell saw Lavoie touch home the puck from close range and, in the process, take Murphy into the net.

However, Thompson disallowed the effort because he had blown his whistle before the puck went in.

Scoring Bison: Campbell 1+0, Lavoie, Ellis 0+1.

Stars: Wynne 2+0, Priestlay 1+3, Hand 1+2, Mikel 1+1, Wiita, Hughes 0+1. Shots on goal: Hay 27, Murphy 36. Penalties: Bison 20min, Stars 18.