After sealing their place in the cup semi-finals, the Wildcats returned to home ice to take on the high-flying MK Lightning.
The first once again saw the Wildcats fall behind when Ross Venus opened the scoring on an early powerplay chance with Bebris in the penalty box. Inside the final 5 minutes of the period the Cats levelled the game up through Head Coach Aaron Nell as the first 20 minutes remained a 1-1 scoreline.
In the middle stanza, the visitors once again took the lead when Dillon Lawrence deflected home a Ross Venus pass. However the Wildcats would level the game up just past the midway point when Reed Sayers reacted quickest to a rebound to make it 2-2. Not long after the Lightning left too much room for Gael Lubwele and the Canadian sniped the puck past Kerlin to make the home side take the one goal lead into the third period.
Into the third period the Cats extended their lead thanks to a Tomasz Malasinski goal after a mix up at the back for Milton Keynes. As the Cats pushed the Lightning began to run out of time and with the netminder pulled Tomasz added a second goal to increase the lead to 5-2. There was enough time for MK to add a third, and albeit, consolation goal as the final buzzer sounded on a 5-3 win on home ice to round out 2023!
