Swindon Wildcats suffer duo of weekend defeats

The Bespoke Guardians Swindon Wildcats tough spell continued last weekend with defeats at the hands of the MK Lightning and Sheffield Steeldogs, results which mean the race for second place in the table is really heating up in the last few weekends of the season.

Friday night saw the team travel to MK to take on the Lightning for the first game of the weekend. Things couldn’t have got off to a worse start for Aaron Nell and his team after the hosts took the lead after just 14 seconds thanks to a really nice finish from Adam Laishram.

It wouldn’t be long until the hosts doubled their lead when Callum Field scored from in front of goal at 05:44. Just over a minute later, the hot start for MK carried on when they made it 3-0 through Bobby Chamberlain, which forced Aaron Nell to call his timeout.

Unfortunately for Swindon, at 10:01 the lead was 4-0 when Bobby forced home another goal and ensuring any Swindon comeback would have to be a sensational one.

The first period ended with the Lightning holding a 4-0 lead but in the middle period the physical side of the game took over as the game was broken up by multiple penalties across the 20 minutes.

The only goal of the period though fell to Balint Pakozdi who scored a lovely goal into the top corner of the goal timed at 20:40.

The third period the Wildcats still faced a mountain to climb thanks to the 4-1 scoreline, however at 44:52 a glimmer of hope fell to the travelling fans as Emil Svec pounced on a loose puck in the crease to reduce the gap to two goals, with a little over 15 minutes to play.

However, the hope was short-lived, and at 46:45 Sean Norris’ forecheck saw him win the puck on the boards, race through on goal and score low past Marr to bring the lead back to three goals. As the final period was ending, MK were able to add a 6th goal when Tim Wallace fired the puck into the empty net to seal the 6-2 win.

Saturday night saw the Sheffield Steeldogs come to town again, only a couple of weeks after the National Cup Semi Final victory against the Cats. The visitors were the side to open the scoring when Matt Bissonnette used a nice screen to fire the puck past Renny Marr at 07.05.
 
The game then didn’t see another goal until the midway point of the second period, Tomasz Malasinski ripped the puck past Zimozdra on the powerplay at 31:50. However much like the night before, the momentum was only with Swindon for a short time when Lee Bonner scored a lovely goal at 34:09.

The final period would be one of many goals and at 42:51 the Wildcats tied the game up again this time through Balint Pakozdi and a fortunate bounce in front of net. At 46:26 the Link Centre erupted when the Wildcats took the lead though Emil Svec who buried the puck in from close range to make it 3-2.

However, the Dogs immediately went on the powerplay and got the goal back through Sam Towner at 47:12. Swindon continued to dig deep and Eddie Bebris scored a superb goal tucking the puck under a sliding Zimozdra to make it 4-3. 

Swindon were pegged back again pretty soon after taking the lead when Jason Hewitt scored Sheffield’s 4th of the contest at 52:17.

At 55:38 the Wildcats had a glorious chance to take a very late lead with a powerplay but at 56:00 it worked against them, Matt Bissonnette scored his second of the game with a shorthanded goal to give Sheffield the lead again with 4 minutes to play.

The Cats pulled Marr for the extra forward but couldn’t settle the puck down enough to really control the play and at 59:43 Sam Towner added an empty-net goal to seal the 4-6 victory and complete a tough weekend for the Bespoke Guardians Swindon Wildcats.