The Bespoke Guardians Swindon Wildcats completed another four-point weekend, which this time around took them to the summit of the NIHL National league table. With wins against the Peterborough Phantoms on Saturday night before an impressive victory against the Sheffield Steeldogs on Sunday evening, now sees us sit two points clear with a game in hand over the Steeldogs in second place.

On Saturday evening the Wildcats went into the contest with Sam Smith and captain Sam Bullas absent from the line-up, and with Dean Skinns getting the starting job for the hosts. It would however be the visitors who took the lead in the game. With the Wildcats on the powerplay, a break would actually fall to ex Wildcat Callum Buglass who sped up the right wing, and fired a shot into the net past Skinns at 9:38, with the assists going to Scott Robson & Jordan Marr.

As the opening period was winding down, the Wildcats tied the game thanks to a well worked goal from Chris Jones at 18:37, the Welsh forward being fed the puck by Emil Svec and then fired past Marr. However, the Phantoms bounced straight back 34 seconds later when Ales Padelek had a breakaway which he converted to give the visitors a 1-2 lead into the first break.

In the second period, the home side carried on a trait of good middle periods when they outscored Peterborough 3-1. It would however be the Phantoms who extended their lead before the Wildcats came flying back. Bradley Bowering was on hand at 22:51 to fire through the legs of a screened Skinns to make it 1-3. At 27:31 Swindon Emil Svec scored his first of the evening pouncing on a loose puck above the crease to reduce the deficit to a single goal.

On the powerplay at 32:12, the Wildcats tied the game up through Head Coach Aaron Nell, the Cats coach fired a big slapshot on net through Marr from the point as the momentum was truly swinging in favour of the home side. Svec then added a second goal for himself at 33:41 after being fed by Aaron Nell to give Swindon the lead for the first time in the contest going into the second period break.

In the third period, Peterborough were gifted a chance back into the game when Tomasz Malasinski was sitting a boarding minor penalty. Duncan Speirs tying the game up with a really nice shot from a tight angle on the left wing. The Polish forward would make up for his penalty when he scored an unassisted goal at 46:26 to re-take the lead in the game. With the clock dying down the Phantoms began to roll the dice and pulled Jordan Marr in favour of an extra forward.

When the Wildcats failed to clear the blue line the puck made its way back down low to Glenn Billing who then slid the puck across the crease to Tom Norton who had the whole net to fire into and force the game into overtime. During overtime the Phantoms took what would be a crucial penalty at 62:34 when Nathan Pollard was sent to the box for hooking. The Wildcats remained patient, and Aaron Nell slid the puck to the right board for Emil Svec to release a cannon past Marr, seal his hat-trick and ensure the two points remained in Swindon.

Going up to Sheffield on Sunday would be one of the biggest games of the season, with the winner knowing they would spend the week at the top of the table. In the first period the Steeldogs got some early tests on Renny Marr but the Scottish netminder stood tall, as he would all night. At 18:33, whilst on the powerplay Emil Svec continued his rich rein of form with a big shot past Zimozdra to finish the first period at 0-1.

The middle period would prove to be a cagey affair, neither side wanting to make the mistake which the other could then punish, the closest to a goal we saw would be a speculative shot from Svec just cannoning off the crossbar to safety before the teams met again for what would be a tense final period.

Swindon continued to control the game but took a few penalties which gave the Steeldogs ample of opportunities to tie the game up. However, Renny Marr stood tall and pulled off two or three spectacular saves through the period to keep it a 0-1 game. With the Wildcats getting a powerplay of their own, Balint Pakozdi found room past a D man and then room over the shoulder of Dmitri Zimozdra to double the Cats lead with less than five minutes to play.

The game was sealed less than two minutes from the end when Tomasz Malasinski shot a puck from centre ice into the empty net and the Wildcats closed out a massive win against a top side. With Renny Marr getting a 37 shot shut-out there would only be one choice for man of the match and the Wildcats travelled back through the snow with four points in the bag once more.

This coming weekend the Wildcats host the Telford Tigers before travelling to Peterborough for the first time on Sunday to take on the Phantoms.