BRACKNELL Bees moved off the bottom of the English Premier Ice Hockey League table following their battling 4-3 victory at Guildford Flames on Saturday, their second away success of the season, writes Dave Wright.

But their hopes of back-to-backs wins never materialised as they slumped to a 3-1 reverse at the hands of Basingstoke Bison on Sunday. And that means they have still to win in front of their home fans this term.

That should change if Bees can repeat the same fighting qualities they displayed against the Flames, turning a first-period 1-0 deficit into a 3-1 lead in the second period.

They then conceded two goals in quick succession late in the game, only for Alex Barker to snatch the winner with 81 seconds remaining.

Bracknell had made it even tougher for themselves by committing a few too many indiscretions which led to them totting up a total of 30 penalty minutes during the game.

All three goals they conceded came on power play, the first being netted by Jens Eriksson with the game a little over four minutes old.

But the Bees got their game together and silenced most of the near 1,600 crowd with three unanswered goals in the second period.

With his team on power play, Scott Spearing levelled the scores on 28:39 with assistance from Krystof Kafan and new signing Olegs Lascenko, a 19-year-old forward from National 1 South Club Chelmsford Chieftains.

Kafan then put them ahead on 32:17 from a chance set up by Rio Grinell-Parke and James Galazzi.

A little over three minutes later the visitors added their third, with David Gaborcik turning home a pass from Lukas Smital.

But the end of the period produced a flare up between the players, leaving referee Andy Miller with some decisions to make.

He appeared to incense Matt Foord the most, as the Bees captain received a 10-minute suspension for misconduct.

Spearing was penalised for both cross checking and roughing, putting him in the sin-bin for a total of four minutes.

Guildford forward Andy McKinney also became involved, receiving a 10-minute penalty for abusing an official to add to his two minutes for roughing.

The seats in the sin-bin continued to stay warm in the third period with Grinell-Parke, Galazzi (twice), Kafan and Smital all being penalised.

It was during a five on three manpower that saw Eriksson score his and Guildford’s second goal on 56:09 and they were also on a two-man advantage when Matic Kralj made it 3-3 on 57:56.

The momentum was with the Flames, however they were blown out when Barker grabbed the winner on 58:31 after good work by Spearing.

Alex Mettam produced another outstanding performance on a night when he faced 26 shots, and the net- minder carried that form into Sunday, when he was voted Bees’ player of the match.

With his side not at their best, he conceded only three goals as Bison amassed 47 shots with only three beating Mettam.

They came from Ciaran Long on 21:50, Shaun Thompson on 31:45 (power play) and Tomas Karpov with a fine solo effort on 38:00.

Bees, who were called for a total of 24 penalty minutes, netted their goal through Luka Basic with 23 seconds of the game remaining.

This weekend brings an away game at Milton Keynes Lightning on Saturday (7pm) and a home clash with Sheffield Steeldogs on Sunday at the usual time of 6pm.