Basingstoke Bison 2, Sheffield Steelers 3 (after overtime)

BISON boss Mark Bernard blamed himself for his side's 3-2 overtime defeat to the visiting Sheffield Steelers.

With 53.6 seconds left in the extra session on Saturday night, the Herd were given a powerplay after Mike Peron's outburst at referee Simon Kirkham, on an offside call, earned him both a 10-minute, and a match, penalty.

However, it was the under-strength Sheffield side who scored the winner as Gerad Adams fired home from inside the blue line with 17.8 seconds left in the game.

Bernard said: "I decided to go with three forwards and one defenceman, instead of two and two, to try to force the win. But it didn't happen, so I will put my hands up and say it is my fault."

On a more pleasing note, the Bison's head coach and general manager said: "We have got a point from this game tonight and, with London losing both their games this weekend, we have closed the gap slightly."

He added: "Once again we have taken a lead, come out in the second period and let the opposition get back in the game. I think we wait for bad things to happen and it is becoming a bad habit.

"A win for us is overdue and that will give the guys the belief we need."

On Saturday the Herd welcomed back concussion trio Jeff Ewasko, Duncan Dalmao and Tony Redmond, while Sheffield had Mark Dutiaume back in their line-up.

The first period saw the Bison have the better chances, with Mike Ford testing Sheffield's goaltender Jayme Platt a number of times.

The visitors were happy to try to hit the home side on the break, but lacked the killer pass, except for once when Mike Peron hit the crossbar from close range.

With 22 seconds left in the period, the Bison opened the scoring as Jerry Galway's long pass split the Steelers' defence and man-of-the-match Shawn Maltby latched onto it to produce a superb finish.

For the second week running, the second session saw the visitors pull themselves back into the contest as Sheffield's man-of-the-match Daryl Andrews fired home from the blue line at 30:31.

Two minutes later the visitors took the lead as a lack of communication between Bison netminder Ronnie Vogel and defenceman Dalmao saw both leave the puck for each other on the boards. Dutiaume gladly picked it up and he passed it to Erik Anderson for an easy tap into the unguarded net.

Soon after, Ewasko tried to break the visitors' momentum and clashed with Adams, taking the Steeler to the ice, earning them four minutes each for roughing.

The opening of the final period was end-to-end action, with Vogel making a great sliding save to deny Anderson from a Peron feed.

Soon after, Shaun Thompson found Greg Wood, and Platt had to be at his best to deny a goal.

The home side tied the game at 52:35 as Doug Sheppard and Mike Ford combined for Maltby to slot home.

Three minutes later, a shot from Galway took a freak deflection off the boards, coming back and hitting the Sheffield post. Then, with 34.4 seconds left in session, Brent Pope picked up a slashing penalty.

With no further scoring, the game went to overtime, with Sheffield having the extra man advantage and upper hand early on. Former Bison Joe Ciccarello went close, as did Redmond for the home side.

Then came Peron's outburst and just when it looked like the Bison might nick the win, thanks to the man advantage, Dutiaume skated out of the visitors' end zone and passed across for Adams to score the winner.

Scoring: Bison: Maltby 2+0, Ford, Galway, Walter, Sheppard 0+1; Steelers: Andrews, Anderson, Adams 1+0, Dutiaume 0+2, Peron 0+1. Shots on Goal: Vogel 34, Platt 30. Penalties: Bison 10min, Steelers 43.