Basingstoke Bison 4, Milton Keynes Kings 5

IT was third time lucky for the Milton Keynes Kings as they finally beat the Basingstoke Bison 5-4 on Sunday.

The visiting team included six former Bison players - and one of them, Jonathan Phillips, netted the game-winning goal five minutes from time.

However, far too often the home side gifted the visitors goals.

In a fast opening, it was the Bison who took the lead as Rob Lamey's cross was put away by Jimmy Andersson and he was then cross checked to the ice by Rick Strachan, which saw a few words exchanged.

The visitors drew level two minutes later as Bryan Blair started a move by punching Jake Armstrong in the face and then converted a Phillips cross.

Soon after, a Phillips shot was cleared out of the goal crease by Neil Liddiard, before the Bison took the lead again.

An Andersson shot came off the pads of Domenic DeGiorgio and Derek Higdon fed Richard Little to net by the post at 14:51.

The second session opened with the Kings pulling back as Janne Ronkainen's shot was deflected in.

The visitors then piled on the pressure but Robert Schistad produced a string of good saves.

The pressure was stopped by the only penalty of the period as Strachan departed for holding Joe Baird as he threw him to the ice.

The home side took full use of the extra player, with man-of-the-match Little netting his second.

The final period got off to the worst possible start as a Chris Brant pass was picked off by David Clarke and he fed Jeff Daniels to net at 43:25.

Four minutes later, a mis-timed shot from Blair gave the Kings the lead for the first time.

A minute later, the Bison were given a man advantage and made it a trio of powerplay goals as Mike Ellis stepped off the home bench to net close in at the far post at 55:02.

Thoughts may have turned to overtime but the Kings had other ideas and, when Simon Howard sent a long pass out of defence, Phillips did well to control the puck and skate in to score.

With 69 seconds left, Basingstoke called a time out and pulled Schistad for an extra skater - but it was all in vain.

Scoring - Bison: Little 2+0, Andersson, Ellis 1+0, Burgess 0+3, Higdon, Lamey, Brant 0+1. Kings: Blair 2+0, Phillips 1+2, Daniels, Ronkainen 1+0, Strachan, Newman, Meyers, Moran, Howard, Breadmore 0+1. Shots on Goal: Schistad 43, DeGiorgio 43. Penalties Bison 6min, Kings 10.