In the penultimate weekend of the NIHL Spring Cup, the Swindon Wildcats made it three wins on the bounce with a big 4-1 victory against the Telford Tigers in a Friday night game on home ice. After two big defeats against the Tigers earlier in the competition, the Cats sealed a 4-1 victory much to the delight of Head Coach Aaron Nell.
Having fallen behind in their previous two contests the hosts knew a quick start was needed against a very strong Telford side, who’d just lost back to back fixtures against the Sheffield Steeldogs. At 01:55 the call was answered when Jordan Kelsall continued his good run of form firing past Jordan Hedley. The assist on the opening goal being awarded to Reed Sayers.
The opening period would be end to end however neither side were able to find the back of the net despite the Cats outshooting the Tigers 15-8. Within the opening minute of the second period and the Wildcats had doubled their lead through a rare name on the scoresheet. Tomasz Malasinski fed the puck back to the point for Sam Godfrey to fire home at 20:55. The Tigers used this to gain some momentum and after a couple of good shifts, they’d reduced the deficit to just a single goal when Scott McKenzie converted with the assists going to Kieran Brown & Robert Lachowicz.
The goal would prove to be the final goal for the middle stanza and there was to be no further scoring until the final half of the third period. The game had an edge to it and there was a feeling in the building that the next goal in the contest would be crucial for the final score. Thankfully for Swindon fans, Ben Davies was on hand to extend the Wildcats lead back to two goals at 51:42, with Matthew Myers and Neil Liddiard getting their names on the scoresheet with assists.
With the Tigers chasing the game there were further opportunities for the Wildcats and at 57:37 Tomasz Malasinski scored the home sides’ fourth goal of the game to seal a 4-1 victory over second-placed Telford.
On Saturday afternoon the Wildcats hit the road back to Romford for their second game there in as many weeks. The Cats were unable to convert the win at home into a four-point weekend thanks to three late goals from the Raiders, who sealed a 6-3 win.
The Wildcats had led going into the first period break when Aaron Nell and Josh Batch cancelled out an early Tommy Huggett opener with the Cats holding a 2-1 lead after 20. The game was all square after 40 minutes as Glenn Billing tied the game up at 34:22.
In the final period and the Cats got off to the worst possible start when Aaron Connolly scored after just six seconds of action to give the Raiders the 3-2 lead. However, Chris Jones tied the game up at 52:20 before Erik Piatak took the wind out of the Cat’s comeback just over a minute later.
With the Wildcats chasing, Brandon Ayliffe converted on a breakaway to extend their lead to two goals before Harry Gulliver scored the Raider’s 6th goal into the empty net at 57:52.
This weekend sees the Wildcats host the Bees IHC on Saturday afternoon before the team travel north to Sheffield to try and ruin the Sheffield Steeldogs party after they were crowned NIHL Spring Cup champions last weekend.
