Swindon Wildcats player-coach Aaron Nell hailed the performances of Max Birbraer and Renny Marr after the pair helped their team beat Milton Keynes Lightning 7-0 at the Link Centre on Saturday night

SWINDON Wildcats put up a magnificent seven goals without reply on Saturday night as they extended their winning run in the National Ice Hockey League at home to Milton Keynes Lightning.

Aaron Nell’s men have now won five games in a row – while also maintaining their 100 percent record at the Link Centre – ahead of Sunday night’s fixture against the only side they are yet to face in Basingstoke Bison.

Max Birbraer was the hero on Saturday night though as his hat-trick put Swindon on course for their third shutout victory of the campaign.

Tomasz Malasinski and Floyd Taylor got the Cats off to a perfect start in the first period with a goal each before a Birbraer brace doubled the hosts’ score in the middle 20 minutes.

Edgars Bebris netted the fifth before Nell continued his excellent goal-scoring record with a powerplay strike while Birbraer capped off a superb evening with the seventh late on.

With five points from Birbraer, Nell lauded the efforts of his classy forward before turning the praise onto his entire outfit for a tireless performance.

Nell said: “We were really good tonight, especially in that third period where I thought we were excellent.

“That’s a big win for us, even though MK have got a lot of injuries.

“Next time we play them, I expect them to be a lot better than that, but we were very good, and it was good to keep up that good form.”

Swindon’s good form is in no small part down to their extremely talented young netminder Renny Marr.

The Scot has now prevented Peterborough Phantoms, Bracknell Bees and MK Lightning from scoring this campaign, and Nell believes his man between the pipes has been enjoying his best games of the season in recent weeks.

Nell said: “Renny had to make three or four really good saves in the second period.

“In the first and third, I thought we were excellent defensively, but he bailed us out with one incredible save and a few other very good ones.

“That was his best game of the season, for me. The last two have been his best really, and the whole defensive unit are working really hard as a group.

“We switched off for five minutes in the second period and gave them a lot of chances, but apart from that, the whole group played really well.”