For our third ‘home away from home’ game the Bespoke Guardians Swindon Wildcats headed to Wales to take on the Solway Sharks at Vindico Arena, home of the Cardiff Devils. A very healthy Wildcats following joined us as we looked to bounce back from defeat against MK the night before.

Similarly to Friday night, the Wildcats opened the scoring at 16:51 thanks to a nice slapshot from Balint Pakozdi. This would be the only goal of the first period as the Cats led the Sharks 1-0 after 20 minutes of action.

In the middle 20 minutes, the Sharks levelled the game up thanks to import forward Nolan Gardiner. However, the Cats would only be level for less than minute before Reed Sayers restored the home side’s one goal lead. At 32:46 on the PP the Sharks levelled the game up again through their other import forward John Dunbar. However the Cats one goal lead was restored before the third period through Tyler Plews, who may not get on the scoresheet too much but clearly loves it when he does.

In the final period, the Cats extended their lead at 46.13 through Tomasz Malasinski. However going into the final 10 minutes of the game, four unanswered goals from Solway ensured the points went back to Scotland with the Sharks. First John Dunbar at 51.13, then Liam Stenton less than two minutes later tied the game up at 4-4.

With just 15 seconds left on the clock, the Sharks scored the game winner through Craig Peacock before Peacock himself added another late empty net goal to seal the 4-6 victory.

MOM for the Cats was Reed Sayers.

Swindon:

  1. Balint Pakozdi from Colby Tower & Glenn Billing @ 16.51
  2. Reed Sayers from Chris Jones & Luc Johnson @ 24.32
  3. Tyler Plews from Tomasz Malasinski & Aaron Nell @ 38.06
  4. Tomasz Malasinski from Aaron Nell & Russ Cowley @ 46.13

Solway:

  1. Nolan Gardiner from Scott Henderson & Lewis Young @ 23.42
  2. John Dunbar from Olivier Arseneau & Kell Beattie @ 32.46 (PP)
  3. John Dunbar from Craig Peacock & Liam Stenton @ 51.13
  4. Liam Stenton from John Dunbar & Nolan Gardiner @ 53.09
  5. Craig Peacock from John Dunbar @ 59.45
  6. Craig Peacock @ 59.54 (EN)