Sunday evening saw the Cats travel to Slough to take on the Bees IHC for the first time in 2024. The visitors opened the scoring through the very familiar Tomasz Malasinski before the Bees bounced back with three more goals in the opening twenty minutes.
Adam Rosbottom got the Bees first before Gianni Vitali added the second for the hosts. With the Cats on the powerplay the Bees got a break with Dominik Gabaj converting a breakaway after Gael Lubwele slipped at the blue-line, giving the Bees the 3-1 lead going into the second period.
In the middle period the Cats fell further behind when Marcel Balaz scored a powerplay goal early in the second period making the score 4-1. However minutes later Chris Jones reduced the deficit to two goals.
After 6 minutes of powerplay where Swindon dominated the puck they were unable to convert, Aaron Nell reacted first to a rebound to bring the score within one goal. Tomasz Malasinski scored an absolute snipe in the final minute to tie the game up before Marcel Balaz was able to get the Bees back in front before the final buzzer sounded on 40 minutes of hockey!
Into the third period and the Cats knew that had to get the to next goal to get some points out of the contest, and they did exactly that at 51:01 when Glenn Billing tied the game up on the powerplay. Tomasz Malasinski then sealed his hat-trick less than 30 second later to give the Cats the 5-6 lead.
Inside the final two minutes, Colby Tower gave the Cats the two goal cushion they’d need when the Canadian beat Preece on the breakaway. With only 5 seconds on the clock, Dan Rose added a late consolation goal but the buzzer sounded and the Cats had completed the four point weekend.
MOM for the Cats with the hat-trick was Tomasz Malasinski
