TONY HAND’S overtime goal straight from a face-off earned Phoenix full points against Basingstoke Bison.

The EPL champions came from 3-1 down to snatch sudden-death victory and take maximum points from their first weekend after Saturday’s 5-3 win in Slough.

Hand was a happy man after Sunday night’s win.

“We got a good start in Slough on Saturday but then we took our foot off the gas and they took the game to us,” said the Phoenix player-coach.

“It was the same tonight and they had the best of the first period but in the second and third we came back well.

“I would have been happy with a point when we were 3-1 down but we managed to get two.

“It’s a long season and we have got 52 games to go so we are not getting carried away.

“But it was a great weekend to get four points against two solid teams so I’m happy with our start.

“We still need a few more games to get our match fitness and we had a long bus trip the night before.

“We have got a lot of experience in the team and a lot of good characters and they worked hard and earned their reward.”

Phoenix trailed 3-1 at the first break.

Jacob Heron put Bison in front in the seventh minute before Martin Cingel equalised

but within seconds Phoenix were behind again with Joe Miller tipping past Steve Fone.

Bison went further ahead, short-handed, through Marek Dubec before a strong second period brought Phoenix back into the game.

Stephen Wallace scored after 45 seconds in and then levelled the game a couple of minutes before the break.

Miller fired his second minutes into the third period but Phoenix fought back again within a couple of minutes.

It stayed until overtime when Hand and Steve Moria competed for the face-off and the puck flew straight into the Bison net