Swindon Wildcats were victims of a late comeback by the Raiders on Sunday evening when they travelled to London to take on Sean Easton’s men. Despite leading 2-1 at the end of the first period and 4-3 midway through the third, the Raiders were able to rally together and win the game 6-4 thanks to a late empty net goal.
The opening period saw the hosts come fast out of the blocks, predictably so after having the previous evening off, and they were able to capitalise early when Filip Sedivy was able to find room to fire past Renny Marr at 02:25. The Wildcats regrouped and were beginning to put more pressure on and scored two quick goals themselves when Floyd Taylor scored a lovely wraparound at 11:26 before Max Birbraer gave the visitors the lead. A nice move through the neutral zone saw the Wildcats import find some space to pick his shot and fire low past Michael Gray.
An incident right at the end of the first period saw Wildcats Sam Bullas awarded a 5+Game penalty for slashing, giving the Cats 5 minutes of penalty to kill, which they were able to do quite easily as the second period began.
However, at 26:23 the Raiders drew level again, Jake Sylvester this time was first to react to a loose puck and bat in the puck to make it 2-2. Again though, the Wildcats pressed forward and were able to regain the lead, Loris Taylor fed the puck across to his brother Floyd who picked his spot beautifully and scored his second of the game.
At 37:31 the game was tied again, this time Ollie Baldock was first to react to a rebound given up by Renny Marr and sent us into the second break tied at 3-3.
Yet again at the end of the second period there was a coming together between players, this time the Raiders Blahoslav Novak was awarded a match penalty for roughing timed at 40:00.
Into the third period and the game was finely poised, despite having a whopping 23 shots on goal in the period the Wildcats were only able to score the one goal which was at 46:45 when Sam Jones went goal-line to goal-line and was able to fire low past Grey to give the Wildcats the single goal advantage.
The Raiders wouldn’t back down and on the powerplay they were able to tie the game up once more thanks to a nice individual goal from Ashley Jackson. He waited on the wing and took his time and swung a shot towards net which caught Marr by surprise and went between his legs into the goal at 51:53.
With the game clock ticking by and the match looking increasingly like it would head to overtime, JJ Pitchley was able to pounce on a loose pass through the D zone and sniped a shot high into the top corner of the Wildcats goal. With Renny Marr pulled, the Wildcats were able to create chances but not enough to force the game to overtime and Brandon Ayliffe was able to clear the puck the length of the ice and into the empty net.
