Guildford Flames 1 Basingstoke Bison 5

CAPTAIN Mike Ellis was the Basingstoke Bison hat-trick hero on Sunday as the Herd recorded another great victory at big-spending Guildford Flames.

The home side looked to have got off to a dream start when Derek DeCosty scored, but the goal was disallowed by Gary Plaistow as the goal had come off its moorings.

With the Flames still upset, former player Chris Crombie added more salt into the wounds as he lobbed the puck from centre ice and went for a line change, but it was completely mis-judged by Danny Lorenz and ended up in the net with just 92 seconds played.

The home side equalised as DeCosty netted at the back post, completing a move involving man-of-the-match Paul Dixon and Craig Lyons at 6:48.

However, the visitors were not to be denied a first-period lead as the powerplay unit did its job again as Peter Campbell and Steve Moria set up Bison man-of-the-match Ellis at 10:37.

The middle of the second session belonged to the Wella-backed side as Moria made it 3-1 from close range at 27:40.

The same player then turned helper as Ellis scored his second before his hat-trick strike at 33:00 saw a shell-shocked Spectrum go silent.

Worse was to follow for the home fans as one of their top forwards, Jason Lafreniere, picked up a 10-minute miscon-duct penalty at 37:57.

He returned to the ice in the final session only to be dismissed on a 5+game penalty for slashing on Nick Cross.

That started a string of penalties which saw Guildford end the game with four men in the sin bin.

Within 24 hours of the game finishing, the Surrey outfit announced that Jason Bowen would be joining them - to allow Stan Marple to return to coaching duties.

Scoring: Flames: DeCosty 1+0, Lyons, Dixon 0+1; Bison: Ellis 3+0, Moria 1+2, Crombie 1+1, Aldridge, Cotnoir, Cross, Campbell 0+1. Shots on Goal: Lorenz 37, Hay 27. Penalties: Guildford 63min, Bison 16min.