After the highs of an Autumn Cup victory, the Bespoke Guardians Swindon Wildcats went it into the Christmas period on an almighty high, the results over the festive season would make it an unhappy Christmas in Wiltshire.
Kicking things off on Boxing Day the Wildcats hosted the Basingstoke Bison who themselves were missing a few key players, Emil Svec opened the scoring at 07:20 in what would be the only goal of the opening period.
In the middle period, the Bison bounced back with two goals of their own, first a powerplay marker by Alex Roberts before right at the end of the period a goal from stand-in captain George Norcliffe gave them a 1-2 lead.
The Wildcats returned for the third period and the injury bug had truly arrived when Renny Marr was forced out of the game in the second-period break. The home side did however get the game tied at 50:56 Tomasz Malasinski fired home to make it 2-2. The tie would only be level for a matter of seconds before the Bison re-took the lead through an Aidan Doughty marker and then the fourth goal was added through Doughty again at 53:59. This sealed the 4-2 win for the visitors before the Wildcats went to Basingstoke the following day for revenge.
With both, Renny Marr & Dean Skinns sidelined the Wildcats called upon the services of John Dibble from the Bristol Pitbulls.
After keeping the Bison away from the Cats goal for the first 10 minutes or so, the hosts took the lead with their first shot on goal through that man again Alex Roberts again. In the middle period, the Bison would extend their lead from 1 to 3 goals through goals from Ryan Sutton and another from Alex Roberts.
Right at the death of the second period, the Wildcats got onto the scoresheet when Aaron Nell found Eddie Bebris in front of the net and the Latvian tipped the puck home to make it 3-1 with 20 minutes to play.
In the third period, the Cats were next on the scoresheet again when another powerplay deflection, this time from Sam Bullas reduced the deficit to a single goal. However Aidan Doughty restore the host’s two-goal lead at 53:53. The Bison added a 5th goal when Alex Roberts completed his hat-trick at 57:53 before a very late consolation goal from Aaron Nell at 59:34 ensured the Bison would come away with a 5-3 victory.
On the 30th of December, the Wildcats completed their 2021 schedule with a game against the MK Lightning. Going into the contest the Wildcats would be missing a whole host of players due to Covid & Injury with many of the team stepping up from the Bristol Pitbulls to ensure the game went ahead.
At the end of the first period, the Wildcats were faced with a deficit of 1-2 with two goals from Sean Norris cancelling out a late Emil Svec strike.
In the middle period the Lightning extended their advantage with a Liam Stewart goal before Loris Taylor struck back for the home side. Seconds later Leigh Jamieson resorted the two goal lead for the visitors.
When Chris Jones got us back to within a goal, it would be the Lightning who scored their 5th goal through Sean Norris before Adam Laishram added a 6th at 38:36.
In the final period the visitors would extend their lead further when Sean Norris added his fourth of the night before Bobby Chamberlain added the Lightning’s 7th goal at 54:07. Aaron Nell was able to get another goal for the Wildcats at 56:33 but the 9th goal was scored at 59:01 through Ross Green as the Lightning secured a massive victory in terms of the league table.
As the team went into 2022, injuries and Covid protocols would continue to effect the side with their games against the Bees and the Leeds Knights.
