THE Basingstoke Bison set a new English Premier League club record with their 11th straight home win.

The thrilling 3-2 penalty shoot-out victory over the title rivals the Milton Keynes Lightning saw the Herd return to the top EPL table.

The Bison welcomed back British forward Grant Rounding for his first game of the season after a long time out with injury, but Alex Symonds and Ryan Sutton were missing from the line-up.

The Lightning gave a debut to their new import defenceman Martti Jarventle and had the better of the opening 20 minutes helped by being given a powerplay in the first two minutes.

MK’s top line of imports Markku Tahtinen and man of the match Marko Luomala, along with Leigh Jamieson caused numerous problems for the home defence, but it remained 0-0 at the first buzzer.

The Bison then had the better of the middle session, but it was the visitors who scored first as Jordan Cownie netted at the far post at 21:37.

The home side took four minutes to reply as man of the match Joe Greener scored with a superb top shelf finish.

Former Bison shot stopper Dean Skinns then produced a great save to deny Joe Rand, before Tomas Karpov made it 2-1.

The Herd’s top scorer robbed Michael Farn of the puck and even if the defenceman tried to butt end him, the forward skated in to score at 38:52.

This proved to be the end for Skinns, as he was replaced by Jordan Marr, which seemed very harsh on the former Bison fans’ favourite.

The final period saw MK take just four minutes to tie the game, as Jamieson fired in from just inside the blue line.

After this both sides had chances to win the game, but after 60 minutes it was still 2-2.

The extra session of five minutes of sudden death overtime saw a nasty check by Jarventle on Joe Greener by the home bench The MK import was lucky not to be dismissed on his debut by referee Tim Pickett, who gave him just a two minute rest in the sin bin.

The Bison were unable to score on the powerplay and then as the tension grew the home side’s Joe Baird took a penalty and Tomas Hiadlovsky was called upon to make some late saves.

With no scoring in the extra session, the winning team was decided by a penalty shoot-out. MK’s Luomala was the first player to shoot, but an excellent poke check from Hiadlovsky denied him.

Bison’s Rand then converted his shot and when Cownie saw his effort saved it meant Ciaran Long had the chance to win the match.

The British forward did not disappoint as his shot hit the back of the net and was met with the biggest cheer of the night.

The Bison have no game this evening and they are back in action on Saturday, when the Hull Pirates are the visitors to Basingstoke.