Swindon Wildcats enjoy three-point weekend

The Bespoke Guardians Swindon Wildcats completed another good weekend picking up three points out of a possible four with an overtime defeat at the Link Centre on Saturday before an impressive 2-1 win on the road in Peterborough on Sunday.

Going into the weekend games the Wildcats were boosted with the return of Captain Sam Bullas who’d missed the previous weekend but would be without Stevie Whitfield for the duration of the weekend. 

On Saturday the Telford Tigers came to town and were eager for revenge after being knocked out of the Autumn Cup by the Wildcats a few weeks ago. The start would however favour the home side. At 3.02 the Wildcats opened the scoring through an unfamiliar name on the goal sheet, Tyler Plews kicked off what would be a man-of-the-match performance with a shot past Brad Day from the point.

In the opening period, the Wildcats continued to test the Tigers and at 13:03 they’d doubled their lead after a superb pass from Eddie Bebris found Aaron Nell open at the back door to fire home to make it 2-0. The lead however didn’t last long, and Jason Silverthorn scored his first of the evening through a fine shot past Renny Marr in the Wildcats net.

After some issues with the ice surfacer, both sides would play out the rest of the game without a fresh ice cut but it would be the Tigers who were next on the scoresheet. 

Andy McKinney found room for Jonathan Weaver at the back door to fire home past Marr to tie the game up at 2, in a move which was very similar to the Wildcats second goal. The time of this was 29:51 but this would prove to be the last goal of the regulation game.

As there was no further scoring in the rest of the second, or the entirety of the third period, the game went to overtime as each side had guaranteed a point. The Tigers had a powerplay running over from the third period and they made it count at 60:31.

Jason Silverthorn found room in front of the net to fire past Marr and ensure the bonus point would be going back with his Tigers team leaving the Cats defeated on home ice.

On Sunday the Wildcats made their first trip to Peterborough this season and it would be another game of relatively low scoring but intense action.

In the opening period, Emil Svec turned provider for Aaron Nell who found room in the slot to fire past Jordan Marr in the first period to make it 0-1.

In the second period there would be no further scoring so going into the final 20 minutes it set it up nicely as it was just a single goal game. 

The Wildcats though would score what would be the game-winning goal through Reed Sayers who span and fired low past Marr with Emil Svec once again getting the assist. Late in the third period, the Phantoms broke the shutout through Glenn Billing. Despite a physical final couple of minutes the Wildcats held on and ensured a three-point weekend and a job well done on the road.

This coming weekend we take on the Bees IHC at home before we travel to Telford on Sunday to take on the Tigers.