The Swindon Wildcats had a weekend of mixed results after a staggering victory against the Bracknell Bees and then a loss against the Peterborough Phantoms.
Photo credit - Jack McCarthy
Words by Jack McCarthy.
The Wildcats ended their four game losing streak by beating the Bracknell Bees 5-3 at the Link Centre, shortly followed by the grabbing of a point in the Peterborough Phantoms match, as they lost in overtime in a well-fought game.
Despite missing key forward Tomasz Malasinski, the Wildcats still showed their class and battled hard to keep their place at second in the league.
The match against the Bracknell Bees took place on Saturday, 12 March.
The Wildcats were very much in control of the first period creating a lot of chances but the Bees were holding on.
But the pressure paid off as Emil Svec found space behind the back of the net and laid the puck to Chris Jones who’s shot went top corner knocking the water bottle off at 17:38.
The score at the end of first half was Wildcats 1-0 Bees.
The Wildcats then carried this momentum into the second period as Balint Pakozdi found some space and received the puck off Aaron Nell and rifled it past Goss at 21:13.
This lead was then extended to three as Coach Nell found some space in the slot and back handed it past Goss at 24:31.
Just 33 seconds later Jack Goodchild did well on the forecheck to get the puck and slotted it in to give the Wildcats a four goal lead.
Neil Liddiard then rolled back the years and dropped the gloves with Martin.
The Bees did respond well as William Stead latched onto a rebound to reduce the deficit to 3 at 37:45.
With a 5 on 3 opportunity for the Bees they managed to get another one back with Josh Smith squeezing it past Skinns at 38:28.
At the end of the second half the score was Wildcats 4-2 Bees.
The Wildcats did manage to get their 3 goal lead back with Pakozdi laying the puck back to Nell who just managed to push the puck through Weller Evans at 48:17.
With 2:08 to go the Bees did get one back through Juha Lindgren but it wasn’t enough.
The score at the end of game was Wildcats 5-3 Bees.
Sunday, 13 March saw the next Wildcats match take place in Peterborough against the Phantoms.
The Phantoms started off the game very well with a lot of pressure on the Wildcats net.
Then on the power play they got their reward with Ales Padelek slotting the puck in from the wide angle at 5:59. However the Wildcats got back into the game through Svec who wrist shot the puck past Jordan Marr at 16:48
At the end of first period, the score was Phantoms 1-1 Wildcats.
The second period was much more even with both teams going end to end.
Will Weldon then broke away and his initial shot was saved by Marr but he managed to get his stick onto the rebound to give the hosts the lead again at 25:47.
Padelek nearly got his second as his shot pinged off the cross bar and at the end of the second period the score was Phantoms 2-1 Wildcats.
The Wildcats then came out very strong in the third period putting a lot of pressure on the Phantoms net.
They got their reward as Plews found some space and wrist shot the puck into the top corner to tie the game up at 46:49.
At the end of the third period, the score was Phantoms 2-2 Wildcats.
With the game going to overtime the Phantoms did well to win all of the face offs and had all the puck possession.
And it was Padelek again who received a pass from Billing and backhanded it past Marr to hand the Phantoms the extra point at 63:45.
At the end of the game, the score was Phantoms 3-2 Wildcats.
Next up for the Bespoke Guardians Swindon Wildcats will be a match against the current league leaders - the Telford Tigers. The Tigers will visit the Link Centre on Saturday, 19 March.
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