THE Basingstoke Buffalo were narrowly beaten 2-1 by table topping Haringey Huskies last Saturday, writes Graham Merry.

The visiting Herd through they taken the lead after 12 minutes as Hallam Wilson scored, but the goal was ruled out and instead the Buffalo’s Paul Petts was given a very tame interference penalty.

With both netminders the Buffs’ Morgan Parsons and Huskies Luke Clark in fine form, the opening goal did not arrive until 35:47, when Conner Smith gave Haringey the lead.

With seven seconds left in the second session, the Buffalo through they had equalised from Harry Harcup, but the referee decided the puck did not go into the net.

Haringey doubled their advantage four minutes into the third period from Joe Tearall.

Despite being 2-0 down the Buffalo kept going and beat man of the match Clark in the final minute of the game, as Wilson converted a pass from Petts.

The visitors then pulled their netminder man of the match Morgan Parsons for the final 23 seconds for the extra skater, but were unable to force the game into overtime.

After the game one of the Buffalo head coaches Paul Petts said: “Both goalies played really well and even if we were out-shot I felt we probably had the better chances. So the game could have gone either way.”

The Buffalo are next in action on the last weekend of January in the semi-finals of the Wilkinson Cup.

They will play either the Peterborough Phantoms or Haringey Huskies in the final four.

Their opponents will be decided this Saturday when Haringey entertain Peterborough.

If the Phantoms win in regulation time they will take on the Buffalo, but any other result will see the Huskies do battle with the Herd in the semi-finals.