THE Basingstoke Bison suffered their first home defeat of 2020 as they lost 4-3 in a penalty shoot-out to the visiting Peterborough Phantoms.

This was after the Herd took the lead with the first good chance of the game as Adam Harding unmarked in the slot netted after good work from Alex Sampford and George Norcliffe at 2:52.

The visitors responded and had the better of the rest of the session,

but Alex Mettam was at his best to keep them out.

The first penalty of the second session saw Bison's Ryan Sutton depart for a late hit.

The Phantoms made full use of the extra man as Petr Stepanek with a lovely strike into the roof of the net levelled things at 22:38.

The Herd then had a good spell of pressure as the Peterborough netminder was called into action.

The visitors then took the lead at 37:48 as a lovely lay back from McEwen allowed Martins Susters to slot home.

Early in the third period, Peterborough made it 3-1 as McEwen netted at the far post.

This left the home side a mountain to climb and their cause was not helped by a number of penalties.

However, eventually they were given their own powerplay and man of the match Richard Bordowski flicked the puck over Marr, after he had saved an Adam Jones shot from the left wing.

With the Herd now chasing an equaliser their cause was not helped when Sean Norris departed to the sin bin for a late hit at 56:23.

Peterborough looked set to score a fourth and seal the game as Susters was found with the puck right in on goal, but Mettam and Liam Morris between them stopped him scoring.

This proved a pivotal moment as 15 seconds later, much to the delight of another big home crowd, the Bison levelled the match thanks to a shorthanded strike from Ashley Tait, after Morris and Bordowski had been denied in a goal mouth scramble.

With no further scoring, the game went into five minutes of sudden death overtime which was very even.

The Herd had the first chance from Tait, before Peterborough man of the match Callum Buglass saw his shot kicked away by Mettam.

Bison’s Sam Talbot then went close and then back up the other way McEwen fired over the bar, when in a good position.

Mettam then produced a great save to deny Petr Stepanek, before Tait fed Michal Klejna, but he too was unable to find the net.

This meant the game was decided on a shoot-out with Peterborough shooting first.

Susters’ effort was gloved away by Mettam and then Klejna gave the home side the lead.

McEwen replied with a nice back hand finish to level things, before Adam Harding’s shot was blocked by the pads of Marr.

Padelek then made it 2-1 to Peterborough, which left Bison man Norris needing to score to take the shoot-out into sudden death.

The young forward was unable to as he could only find the pads of Marr.

This evening the Bison have the chance for quick revenge as they travel to Peterborough in a game which starts at 5.30pm.

After Saturday’s loss, player/coach Tait said: “We did well to get back from 3-1 down, but we are disappointed with only a point from our home game and will have to do better in the return match.”