BASINGSTOKE UK, The Bison crashed to their biggest defeat of their current campaign as they were beaten 8-2 at Milton Keynes Lightning.
The loss saw the Herd slip from top spot in the EPL to third in the standings and ended a five game winning streak for the Basingstoke outfit.
The Lightning struck early on as the impressive Lewis Hook netted in the third minute and then Marko Luomala doubled the advantage soon after.
The Lightning made sure of victory with four unanswered goals at the start of the second period, as Luomala, Jack Watkins, Bobby Chamberlain and Hook made it 6-0 by 31:20.
At this point the Bison pulled their goalie for the first time in two years as import nettie Tomas Hiadlovsky made way for cage man Dan Weller-Evans.
It was the British goalie’s league debut having only seen cup action in last season’s campaign.
It stopped the rot, as soon after, Bison recent signing Alex Symonds scored his first goal of the season and hen Stuart Mogg scored shorthanded early in the final session.
Either side of his strike Blaz Emersic helped himself to a pair of goals to complete the 8-2 victory.
The previous night, the Bison produced a great come from behind victory to beat their locals the Guildford Flames 5-3.
In front of a bumper crowd for their first ever home Friday night game the Herd were 3-1 down at the first buzzer.
This was thanks to a brace from Matic Kralj and a single from Eric Piatak.
The Herd missed a penalty shot from Ciaran Long, before Shaun Thompson got them on the scoreboard.
The second session saw Ryan Watt cut the lead to one and as Guildford ran out of gas after playing two lines for most of the game.
The Bison took advantage as Joe Greener and Alan Lack scored 20 seconds apart to make it 4-3.
Aaron Connolly completed the win with an empty netter with 15.5 seconds left.
“We won against Guildford playing just the last 20 minutes which is not going to happen every night. This was proved in Milton Keynes, where we did not play well at all,” said Bison head coach Doug Sheppard.
Next up for the Bison, is a tricky weekend with a trip to Sheffield followed by a home game with Swindon.
British forward Lack will miss both games against opponents the Herd have yet to play this season
Both teams are now coached by former Basingstoke players after Greg Wood took over in Yorkshire in the summer and Stevie Lyle in Wiltshire.
The Bison will be keen to bounce back and both games count toward the cup and league adding extra meaning to both fixtures.
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