HOT-SHOT Hallam Wilson scored on his Basingstoke Bison debut, as the Herd opened their English Challenge Cup campaign, with a 5-1 victory at Chelmsford Chieftains.

The 16-year-old England forward netted the final goal of the game and his strike came only a week after he scored on his debut for the Basingstoke Buffalo.

Due to the rules of the competition as the Bison were playing a National Ice Hockey League side the Herd were only allowed to ice two of their four imports so Doug Sheppard and Joe Rand sat out the game.

The visitors were also without the suspended Joe Greener and Matt Selby, who picked up match penalties the previous night and injured Michael Wales.

The deadlock in the contest was broken at 30:27, as Bison’s summer signing Declan Balmer scored his first-ever goal for the Herd and then man-of-the-match Aaron Connolly made it 2-0.

Just 51 seconds into the final session, Connolly struck again, before Ross Bears scored Chelmsford lone goal of the evening.

With Nicky Chinn in the sin bin for cross checking, Tomas Karpov netted a shorthanded marker from Ciaran Long’s pass, then Wilson capped his debut with the Bison’s fifth goal at 52:28.

Next for the Bison is a home league game against reigning champions Manchester Phoenix, on Saturday (face-off 6.30pm).

Wilson will be in action for the Buffalo the following night, in their opening home league game against Bristol Pitbulls which also has a 6.30pm start.

Scoring: Chieftains: Brears 1+0, Piecha, J Connolly 0+1; Bison: A Connolly 2+0, Wilson, Balmer, Karpov 1+0, Long 0+3, Chinn 0+2, Vantroba, Baird, Wynn 0+1. Shots on Goal: King 38 Skinns 23. Penalties: Chieftains 8min Bison 14.