THE Basingstoke Bison moved up to third in the National League with a 5-4 overtime win over second placed Telford Tigers.

The Bison welcomed back import Michal Klejna as well as Brits Hallam Wilson, Sam Smith and Oscar Evans, but Tom Ralph and Richard Bordowski were still missing.

The home side got off to a dream start as they opened the scoring after 24 seconds, as Marek Malinsky scored his first ever Bison goal.

The Herd then stunned the Tigers even more, as they netted a second at 2:01, as Josh Kelly and George Norcliffe combined, and Alex Sampford put away his own rebound.

At this point it looked like the Bison would be cruising to a big win, but the Tigers had other ideas and Dan Weller-Evans was kept busy in the home net.

Telford went on to out shoot the home side 13-7 in the opening session, but at 18:47, found themselves 3-0 down.

A blue line shot from Bison man of the match Liam Morris came off the pads of the Telford netminder Bradley Day.

George Norcliffe collected the rebound and found Sampford, who scored his second of the night.

The first powerplay of the game arrived soon after, as Ollie Stone was called for a debatable tripping call on a night of inconsistent officiating.

Telford made the most of the extra man, as Dominik Florian scored with a lovely wrist shot with 4.8 seconds left in the period.

The second session saw the visitors cut the lead to one at 22:46, after man of the match Scott McKenzie deflected Nicholas Oliver’s shot into the roof of the net.

The Bison then went close as Sutton laid the puck back and Norcliffe’s first time wrist shot was smartly saved. Telford then levelled as Florian scored the goal which tied things up at 25:45.

Ten minutes later, a nasty slash on Klejna by Ross Kennedy, saw Hallam Wilson take exception and this earned both players a two minute rest in the penalty box.

The Tigers’ Brandon Whistle then picked up an unsportsman-like penalty a minute later.

The Herd made full use of four-on-three, as Ashley Tait fired into the roof of the net from an Adam Jones pass, just eight seconds after Whistle took his seat in the sin bin.

Five minutes into the final period the home side were given a great chance to extend their lead, when Jack Watkins and Whistle both went to the penalty box at the same time.

Just as the two-man advantage expired, Jones forced Day into a great save.

The visitors then made sure the game went into overtime, as they scored at 54:52. Scott McKenzie forced the puck home after Jason Silverthorn and Whistle had been denied.

The home side had very much the better side of the extra period as Jones and Malinsky both forced saves, before Kennedy had the Tigers’ lone shot of the session.

Overtime ended at 62:17, as Tait fired Ryan Sutton’s rebound in to the roof of the net.

After the game player/coach Tait said: “The win papered over the cracks, as we did not play well for long periods of time.”

This evening the Bison are in action in Bracknell which has a 5.30pm face-off.