THE Basingstoke Bison bounced straight back to winning ways on Sunday evening, with a 6-3 victory over the Sheffield Steeldogs, and extended their lead at the top of the English Premier League table to four points.
Slovak netminder Tomas Hiadlovsky made a winning return to the team from injury and also picked up his first point of the season.
The Bison took five minutes to open the scoring as man of the match Rene Jarolin scored on a powerplay from Joe Greener, as former Bison Greg Wood sat out a slashing penalty.
The Herd who had lost to the Steeldogs in their two previous meetings, made it 2-0 as Greener finished off a move which involved Jarolin and Aaron Connolly.
Just 28 seconds later, and the Herd netted a third goal from their all British line as Shaun Thompson scored assisted by Ciaran Long and Matt Towalski.
The goals were coming think and fast and Jarolin made it 4-0 from a pass from netminder Hiadlovsky.
The Bison second powerplay of the game saw the Herd add a fifth goal from Miroslav Vantroba.
The visitors then ran into their own penalty trouble after Towalski joined Daniel Lackey in the sin bin, but the Steeldogs were unable to convert on 80 seconds of a two man advantage as Arnoldas Bosas was denied by Hiadlovsky.
The Herd went in at the first buzzer leading 5-0 as they equalled the club's record for their biggest period win on the road in the EPL.
The second session saw the home side claw their way back into the contest as on their Stanislav Lascek netted at 25:12 on their first powerplay of the period.
Another penalty on the Bison soon followed, but with the Herd shorthanded, Joe Greener broke away and was slashed by Bosas, which earned the visitors a penalty shot at 26:03.
Greener stepped up to take the shot, but his effort was stopped by Sheffield netminder Dalibar Sedlar.
The Bison then suffered the dismissal of their import defenceman Vantroba as he received a match penalty for butt ending Wood.
This gave the home side a five minute powerplay and Bosas scored his side's second of the night in the first minute of the extra man advantage.
The same player scored again before the powerplay expired to make it 5-3 with 26 minutes left to play.
As the period came to a close Baird went to the penalty box for boarding and then Bosas joined him as he picked up a 2+10 penalty for checking from behind.
So this left the home side without their most lethal offensive weapon for the first half of the final period.
When he did return he went close to grabbing a fourth goal for the Steeldogs, before the game was settled as Towalski scored the Herd's sixth three minutes from time.
On the final buzzer, Wood was given a 5+game for high sticks to swell the penalty count even further.
Next up for the Bison is a home game against the Swindon Wildcats on Saturday night (7.30pm).