THE Basingstoke Bison maintained their five point lead at the top of the English Premier League table, after a 5-3 at the Manchester Phoenix.
It completed a clean sweep of wins for the Herd over their Lancashire rivals and they took the lead in the third minute from Ryan Watt as deflected home Declan Balmer's shot.
Bison goalie Jon Baston then produced a brilliant double stop to deny Ben Wood and Robin Kovar, before the Herd extended their lead at 15:33 from Joe Greener.
The Phoenix opened their account at 26:33 as Michal Satek scored, after being set-up by Stanislav Gron.
The visitors replied from through a nicely worked goal from Tomas Karpov assisted by Matt Towalski and Alan Lack, before Mark Thomas' blue line shot made it 3-2 at 32:45.
However, a powerplay strike from Rene Jarolin in the final minute of the second session made it 4-2.
The visitors gave themselves even more breathing space, as Shaun Thompson scored at 46:01 and the Phoenix wrapped up the scoring thanks to Robin Kovar six minutes from the final buzzer.
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