THE Basingstoke Bison will be hoping to sting the Bracknell Bees on Saturday and avenge a rare loss on home ice in the league to their bitter arch rivals earlier this season.

The derby game on Saturday at the Basingstoke Arena with the face-off 6.30pm.

Slovak sniper Michal Klejna who scored a superb hat-trick in the Herd’s last home outing a victory over Hull is an injury doubt for the game.

He was ruled out for the penalty shot loss at league leaders the Telford Tigers last Sunday.

The Herd took he lead in the contest with the only goal of the first period scored Richard Bordowski assisted by Liam Morris and Alex Sampford.

Just 48 seconds into the second session, Telford levelled things from Brandon Whistle.

However, the Bison hit back and George Norcliffe scored his first goal in his second game from injury after excellent spade work from Adam Harding at 31:44.

Within a minute it became 3-1 as Sean Norris netted from Bordowski.

The game then boiled over as Bison’s Adam Jones and Andy McKinney exchanging blows which saw the Tigers man dismissed after he hit Jones with the Herd man’s helmet, even if it was accidental he was given a match penalty.

Telford tied up the game thanks to Dominik Florian and Scott McKenzie in the final period. With no further goals the game went to overtime which also failed to split the teams.

So a shoot-out decided it with Bison shooters George Norcliffe, Sean Norris and Bayley Harewood not converting as well as Telford’s McKenzie and Florian. It was left to Whistle to score the winner as he beat Bison man of the match Alex Mettam.

Bison player/coach Ashley Tait said: “I felt it was another good weekend and we played well in Telford.

“As we have only one game this weekend, it is important we get the win to keep out place in the standings.”

On Sunday, the Basingstoke Buffalo take on the Cardiff Fire at home in a game which starts at 6.15pm and their line-up will include Bison star Oscar Evans.