Tough two days for Wildcats

The Bespoke Guardians Swindon Wildcats endured back-to-back defeats with the Telford Tigers in two top-of-the-table clashes.

Going into the weekend missing key forwards Sam Bullas and Balint Pakozdi, the Wildcats took to home ice on Saturday and got off to a brilliant start. 

In the opening few minutes Eddie Bebris was able to slam home a loose puck on the powerplay to make it 1-0 at 02:49.

The lead was then doubled at 11:43 with a moment to savour in the Wildcats history books. A hard drive to the net by Chris Jones was then finished off by Oli Endicott, his first competitive goal for the Wildcats following in his father Gareth’s footsteps by scoring for his hometown club.

Heading into the middle period the Wildcats were good value for the 2-0 lead and had been creating the better scoring chances. In the second period the Tigers got their legs going a little bit more and were beginning to get some more scoring chances of their own. Jason Silverthorn, Rick Plant, Vladimir Luka all going close and forcing Cats netminder Renny Marr into some superb saves as the second period closed with scoreline remaining 2-0.

In the third period the tides started to turn and some superb hockey from the Tigers saw them turn a 2-0 deficit into a 2-3 lead within three minutes of hockey. Firstly, Danny Rose was able to finally breach Marr’s defences at 49:13 before 43 seconds later Jason Silverthorn tied the game thanks to a Ricky Plant helper.

At 52:06 recently acquired forward Bayley Harewood scored his first Tigers goal to ensure the momentum was well and truly with the Tigers. The Wildcats pulled their netminder towards the end of the game and with a powerplay as well had a two-man advantage. The puck found its way to Tomasz Malasinski who couldn’t bury the puck and it wrapped around the boards to Thomas McKinnon who stepped out of the penalty box and fired the puck into the empty net to seal the win for Telford.

On Sunday, the Cats travelled to Shropshire for the return fixture looking for a reply. Unfortunately for the Cats, the result ended up being an 8-5 victory for the home side.

The Tigers started very quickly and found themselves a goal up after just 23 seconds when Bayley Harewood scored his second of the weekend with assists to Rick Plant and Jason Silverthorn. At 6:52 the home side doubled their lead. Jason Silverthorn pounced on a good bounce to fire past Marr on the powerplay to make it 2-0. Right at the end of the first period a poor turnover by the Tigers D allowed Aaron Nell room in front of the net to score and make it 2-1 going into the second period.

Early in the middle period, another turn over allowed Aaron Nell through on goal again after a nice combination from Reed Sayers and Tomasz Malasinski before the Swindon Player Coach ripped home to make it 2-2. However, the Tigers would then find another gear themselves. 

Just over a minute later they had the lead back when Finley Howells’ shot found its way through the pads of Renny Marr. At 27:59 it was back to a two-goal lead when Jason Silverthorn wasted no time on a two on one breakaway to slam home past a sliding Marr.

Going into the final period the Wildcats had a two-goal deficit to overcome and a two-man advantage for two minutes to start. However, 14 seconds in, a drop pass getting stuck along the ice allowed Scott McKenzie to rip past Marr and make the lead almost too much to come back from.

Emil Svec did manage to convert on the man advantage and reduce it back to a two goal deficit and a 5-3 scoreline on the night.

The hope then came back to the fans of the Wildcats when Reed Sayers bundled home a loose puck at 47:07 ensuring the game was reduced to a single goal deficit.

However, more goals in quick succession from Scott McKenzie saw him complete a hat-trick with two goals in 17 seconds. The first coming at 47:56 and the second goal coming at 48:13. This saw a change in netminder for the Cats with Dean Skinns relieving Marr in net.

Chris Jones then added another goal for the Wildcats at 50:15 making it 7-5 with around 9 minutes to play but once more, the Tigers replied almost instantly when Vladimir Luka scored the Tigers' eighth goal of the evening at 51:30.

The final buzzer sounded on a difficult weekend for Aaron Nell and the Wildcats with this weekend holding just a single game at home to the Raiders IHC.