A mistake from Kevin Reiter was followed by two quick Cardiff goals

Cardiff Devils survived a tough encounter to beat Basingstoke Bison 6-5 on Saturday.

Six different players got their name on the score sheet for the Devils, who were without injured captain Brad Voth.

Man of the match Derek Campbell, Mike Prpich, Phil Hill, Wes Jarvis, Matt Towe and Jason Silverthorn notched one each for the visitors.

Matt Miller (2), Danny Stewart, Jeremy Cornish and Craig Peacock were on target for the Bison.

Basingstoke's Canadian forward Miller told BBC Radio Berkshire the result was "not good enough", but refused to blame goaltender Kevin Reiter for a spilled puck which was followed by two quick Cardiff goals.

"This was a huge game, we would have pulled one point behind them if we beat them. We have to be winning these home games," said Miller.

"It hurts but we can't blame Reiter, he keeps us in every single game. There's no blaming him for any goal against, no matter what happens. He's the best player every single night for this team.

"There were bad bounces out there all the time. It doesn't seem like we're getting any bounces our way. Soft goals going in hurts the team, and the guys lose momentum."

Bison assistant coach Jeremy Cornish seconded Miller's complaint that Cardiff had been the luckier of the teams.

"It's just bad bounces tonight. The first couple of goals were off bounces, flipped pucks, and they seemed to get them," said Cornish.

"I thought we played better tonight than we did last week. We knew we wanted to play better in the first period tonight and I think we did that.

"No excuses, they beat us tonight but we scored enough goals to win so I'm not sure what went wrong."

Cornish insisted the Bison were continuing to improve despite back-to-back home defeats, and forecast new arrivals on the horizon.

"We're definitely getting better. Each training session's been getting better, we're working harder," he said.

"We need to bring in a couple of guys to level it out a bit but I don't think anybody had a bad game and everybody worked hard.

"Once we bring in a guy or two you'll see a big difference in our club. We've got guys playing 30 or 40 minutes right now. Soon there'll be teams watching out for us."

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