Basingstoke Bison 4, Hull Stingrays 0 CURTIS Cruickshank recorded the Basingstoke Bison's first shut-out of the season as they continued their climb up the Elite League, after a comfortable 4-0 victory over the visiting Hull Stingrays.

In recent weeks, the Herd have been slow starters, but on Saturday night they came out with all guns blazing from the opening face-off, with Brad Cruikshank going close in a goalmouth scramble.

A minute later, a Doug Sheppard lay-back saw Mark DeSantis' fierce shot cannon off the helmet of Hull netminder Miroslav Bielik.

The home side were encamped in the Hull end until the fifth minute when goalie Cruickshank was tested for the first time, kicking away man-of-the-match Sergiy Rublivsky's shot.

Soon after, the visitors were given a four-minute powerplay, after Bison forward Cruikshank took exception to a check by Kevin Young on team-mate Duncan Dalmao.

Referee Dave Cloutman continued to keep the doorman of the sin-bin busy, as Hull's James Knight was the next to enjoy a rest.

The Bison made full use of the advantage to take the lead at 16:37, as Blair Manning found Sheppard at the top of the left-hand circle and he wristed a shot into the net.

Seconds later, giant defenceman Eric Braff waltzed through the visitors' defence, but Bielik denied him what would have been one of the goals of the season.

As the first buzzer went, the home side had to be content with a one-goal lead, even if they deserved more.

Straight after the break, the Herd were back on the stampede as Kevin Bergin and Cruikshank went close from the opening face-off.

Hull's Rublivsky then tried his luck from the same spot Sheppard had scored from in the first period, but Cruickshank gloved away his effort.

The first penalty of the second session saw the Bison net another powerplay strike.

Bergin played the puck on to Cruikshank, his thundering shot came back off the pads of the netminder and Dalmao drilled the rebound home at 23:26.

The home side all but killed off the contest 10 minutes later with another good move, as DeSantis robbed a Hull player in centre ice and found Greg Chambers wide on the right.

He, in turn, sent a cross-ice pass to the back post for man-of-the-match Sheppard to net his second of the contest.

As the middle period came to a close, the home side ran into penalty trouble as both DeSantis and Cruikshank went to the sin-bin, which gave Hull 51 seconds with a two-man advantage at the start of the final session.

Despite this, the home defence stood firm as Braff, Sheppard and Manning, along with netminder Cruickshank, who made a couple of good saves, killed off the penalties and kept the home side in control of the game.

The save of the session came at the mid-point, as the Bison goalie denied Rublivsky, from a nice backhand pass from Sergiy Kharchenko.

Soon after, Bergin sent Cruikshank away, but the attentions of Justyn Schollar meant he was unable to get a clean shot away.

Within a minute, Bison Greg Wood forced a good save from Bielik, and the British third-liner had a new line-mate for the evening, as former Bison and current Buffalo player Gary Clark returned to the Herd after five years.

The victory icing on the cake came at 54:25, as DeSantis sent the puck in to the Hull end zone. Out came their goalkeeper to play it, but instead he mis-controlled the puck and Bergin took the opportunity to fire home off the goalie's pads.

At this point, to save any further embarrassment, the visitors' goalie headed to the bench to be replaced by Tom Chamberlain.

It just remained for home goalie Cruickshank to produce a couple more saves to complete his 30-shot shut-out.

A delighted Bison player/coach Sheppard said: "We took our chances tonight and, when needed, Cruicker Curtis Cruickshank has come up with the saves. We dominated them for long periods and I don't think they can have any complaints with the result. Now we have to build on this victory and get a run of results going."

Scoring; Bison: Sheppard 2+0, Bergin 1+1, Dalmao 1+0, DeSantis 0+2, Manning, Chambers, Cruikshank 0+1.
Shots on Goal: Cruickshank 30; Bielik 33, Chamberlain 2.
Penalties: Bison 14 min; Stingrays 12.