In an exciting match where no more than one goal separated the teams all evening, it was the home side who struck first in the ninth minute, as John Dunbar tipped home a blue line shot from Tanner Butler.

The Herd replied as man of the match Brendan Sellan scored from a nice wrist shot from a Zack Milton feed.

Bristol’s Bayley Harewood crashed a shot off the crossbar soon after, but the score remained 1-1 at the first break.

The Pitbulls were first to net in the second session, as Jake Bricknell with some lovely stick work slotted through the five hole.

Once again the Herd replied as Spadafora picked off a pass from Bricknell and scored a superb shorthanded strike.

The Bison then took the lead in the contest for the first time as Stanley Johnston’s cross to the back post was converted by Adam Harding.

It was now Bristol’s turn to equalise as Bricknell scored on the back hand from a blue line pass from Josh Batch. So it was still tied going into the final session but it was the home side who took the lead again, as a great pass from Caly Robertson found man of the match Dunbar and he hit the roof of the net.

The Herd replied a minute later on the powerplay as Alex Sampford was first to the rebound after George Norcliffe’s shot hit the pads of Tommy Nappier. 

The Bison then moved the scoreboard to 5-4 as Spadafora and Sellan combined for Milton to score at the back post at 54:06.

Once again Bristol hit back and Bricknell’s shot off the back board was slotted home by Harewood to tie things.

With no further goals in regulation time, the game went in to overtime and the Bison did well to kill off a powerplay in the final minute to take the game to a shoot-out.

Bristol were first up and Wright denied Dunbar with his glove.

Sellan then saw his effort saved by Nappier.

Bristol’s Bricknell then fired the next shot wide of the target, before Spadafora slotted the puck through the five hole.

It meant Harewood had to score, but he over played the puck and Wright made an easy save to make sure of the victory.

On Sunday night, the visiting league champions the Leeds Knights came out of the blocks really fast and dominated the opening 20 minutes.

However, after the first period they only led by one goal scored by Balint Pakozdi after he was set free by Kieran Brown.

The second session saw the Herd storm back into the game as Leeds man of the match Sam Gospel came up with a number of big saves.

The first saw him deny Spadafora when he was found at the top of the circle on the powerplay.

Another man advantage soon followed and once again the Herd piled on the pressure.

Milton found Sellan and he dragged the puck across the goal, then Stuart Mogg fired in a blue line shot which caused a goal mouth scramble, but the puck just would not go in.

Then against the run of play, Leeds broke out and Finley Bradon scored from the right wing.

The Herd hit back and Alex Sampford broke away, but Gospel stacked the pads to deny him.

The final period saw the sides swap chances and then with 2:36 remaining the Bison called a time out and pulled their goalie to give them a six-on-five advantage, but for all the Bison’s hard work Gospel stood tall and Leeds were unable to hit the empty net as it finished  2-0 . Tom Relf was the Bison man of the match for another solid display in defence.

After the weekend, Bison head coach Jeff Flanagan said: “It was great to get the win in Bristol in a game which was back and forth all night. Against Leeds I did not feel we started playing until the second period. We had our chances, but just could not find a way past Sam Gospel as he made some great saves.”

The Bison this weekend have a triple header starting at home to the Telford Tigers on Friday night (7.30pm), this is followed on Saturday (6.30pm) by a home fixture against the Hull Seahawks and the third game on Sunday (4pm) is an away trip to the Sheffield Steeldogs.