THE Basingstoke Bison extended their winning run to four games after a 2-1 home victory over the Telford Tigers and a 4-0 road win in Hull.

In a very tight game on Saturday night in Basingstoke, the opening goal came from the first powerplay of the night, as Aidan Doughty deflected home a shot from man of the match Marcel Balaz at 11:38.

The next Bison man advantage was in the second session and saw Balaz ping the pipework.

The Tigers then levelled things at 35:06 on their first powerplay of the night, as Vladimir Luka scored with a blue line shot from the left wing.

This tied things up going into the final session and both sides had their chances before a great solo strike from Balaz at 49:57 gave the Bison the lead.

A nervous last 10 minutes followed and Telford pulled their goalie for the final 43 seconds, but they were unable to force an equaliser.

On Sunday night, the Bison travelled to Hull and thanks to Gail Lubwele with a goal 43 seconds before the first buzzer, the Herd took the lead to the dressing room after 20 minutes.

The score remained the same until the final session, when Doughty and a Hallam Wilson brace made sure of the 4-0 victory.

Alex Mettam picked up the Bison man of the match award for his second shut-out of the season.

Looking back on the weekend Bison head coach Ashley Tait said: “To be honest I was disappointed in how we played. I thought we lacked the jump and urgency we showed the previous week. However, four points is four points and we will take them.”

The double winning weekend puts the Bison joint third in the Autumn Cup standings and on Saturday (7pm) they travel to Milton Keynes to take on second placed Lightning.

They have had a perfect start to the season with five wins out of five and it sees Bison summer signing Edgars Landsbergs make his first return to MK.

On Sunday night (5.30pm) the Herd are at home to the Bristol Pitbulls, which includes former Bison import Alex Roberts.

The Herd beat the Pitbulls twice in pre-season and the new boys to the league are still looking for their first points of the campaign.

Tait said: “Last year we suffered some big losses in MK, but also played some good hockey in their rink, but we know we can’t play like we did last weekend.

“Bristol like Hull are a new team and still finding themselves. They are getting better each week.”