Sunday evening saw the Wildcats travel to South London to take on Jeremy Cornish and the Streatham Redhawks as the December fixtures arrived in the Hockey Calendar. After a disappointing defeat on the Saturday against the Phantoms, the Wildcats knew they must bounce back in the capital.
The first period was the story of one man on a mission. Max Birbraer set about putting Swindon in control of the game, almost on his own thanks to an impressive first period hat-trick. Firstly, he found room coming towards the net and deking his way around Damien King and slid the puck into the back of the net, timed at 05:39.
At 08:22 he scored his second goal with another nice move to find space from a tight angle thanks to a nice feed from Chris Jones. At 14:20, he scored his third and hat-trick goal, in what was probably the goal of the evening. A shorthanded breakaway allowed Chris Jones and Max Birbraer room to break through on goal and just when you thought the chance was gone, Max pulled off a lovely move to bring the puck back and lift it above the blocker right into the top left hand corner of the goal for a 0-3 lead.
Right at the death of the period, Streatham found a way to get back into the contest with a goal just thirteen seconds away from the end of the first, with the goal being given to Michael Farn.
The middle period would again prove to be a productive one for the visitors, outshooting the hosts 16-9 and outscoring them 3-0 in the period.
Adam Harding was fed the puck from Chris Jones, who picked up his fourth assist of the evening, and managed to scramble the puck over the goal-line at 24:46. Exactly two minutes later, at 26:46 the Wildcats third line chipped in with a goal.
The Taylor Brothers combined well when Loris found Floyd crashing he net and #12 was on hand to deflect the puck through the legs of King and make it 1-5, with the second assist going to Toms Rutkis.
As the second period was coming to a close the Wildcats continued to press on, Chris Jones after getting points on four of the previous five goals this time turned scorer himself. Sam Bullas and Sam Godfrey linked up well with the former flicking the puck back to point. CJ was on hand to fire the puck towards net into the bottom right hand corner and make it 1-6 going into the final period.
With a five goal lead it was important the Wildcats continued to control the game as best they could, Streatham to their credit never gave up and at 42:53 they got some just rewards for hard work when Ryan Webb was able to tap home a rebound after the initial shot by Farn was saved by Renny Marr.
As the game began to head closer to the end, there was still time for Brett Shepherd to make some impressive stops on the Swindon forwards after replacing Damien King in goal for the final stanza.
Next weekend sees the visit of the London Raiders before a mouthwatering clash in Peterborough as the Wildcats take on the Phantoms again with the series delicately balanced at 1-1.
