Basingstoke Bison 2 Solihull MK Kings 1

THE BISON booked their place in the end-of-season play-offs, despite turning in their worst performance of the season on home ice.

After last week's two wins, the herd crashed to a 2-1 defeat against bottom-placed Solihull MK Kings on Saturday to give the Midlands outfit - coached by former Wella Bison boss Rick Strachan only their fourth league win of the season.

Home player-coach Steve Moria said: "This was a disastrous result for us. We are not the best team in the league but we work hard and grind out results. Tonight our work ethic was missing.

"This is a huge wake-up call for the guys."

The Bison were still minus defenceman Daryl Lavoie, so Peter Nyman again moved back.

The defence, however, was not the problem. It was a lack of good scoring chances by the forwards, with only the all-British line of Joe Greener, Ryan Aldridge and Marc Levers ending the night showing up well.

The home side went 1-0 down after just 74 seconds. Pavel Gomenyuk shot off the backboard and Todd Wetzel fired home, helped by a deflection.

The Bison responded with the all-British line carving out a good chance for Greener.

In the fourth minute, the Bison had a let-off when Slava Koulikov picked off a pass from Peter Campbell but blasted over from close-range.

Chris Crombie then sent Mike Ellis clear only for Gomenyuk to take the puck off his stick with a great poke-check before the home man-of-the-match could shoot.

At 10:54, the visitors looked to have doubled their lead when Domenic Parlatore's cross went in off Danny Meyers but the effort was disallowed for being kicked in.

The home side continued to press as they out-shot the visitors 19-9 in the first period. In the 15th minute, Kings' man-of-the-match Domenic DeGiorgio came up with a great point-blank save to deny Steve Moria as he tried to net a Matt Cote rebound.

A minute later, the Bison were level when Joe Greener - a week ahead of his 16th birthday - celebrated his first league goal on home ice, as the puck went in off his chest from a Neil Liddiard cross.

The second session started with few clear-cut chances, until the Kings scored what turned out to be the game winner at 27:38, Koulikov netting unmarked at the back post.

The Bison huffed and puffed for the rest of the period but did not really get anywhere with DeGiorgio turning away all 14 shots he faced.

The final period should have seen the Bison skate hard at the visitors but they never really got going.

Their chances were further damaged when Ellis picked up a 10-minute misconduct penalty for comments to referee Matt Thompson after he called the Bison captain for hooking Koulikov at 43:14.

This could have helped the home side as they had to mix up their lines. This sometimes creates scoring opportunities - but not this time.

Soon after, the Kings nearly made it 3-1. Domenic Parlatore was sent clear by Brent Pope and only a good save from Scott Hay denied him.

As the game came to a close, Hay was pulled for the extra skater but, despite a few goal-mouth scrambles, the Kings were not about to give away their win.

Scoring, Bison: Greener 1+0, Liddiard, Levers 0+1; Kings: Wetzel, Koulikov 1+0, Pope 0+2, McWilliams, Gomenyuk 0+1. Shots on goal: Hay 31, DeGiorgio 47. Penalties: Bison 16min, Kings 4.