THE Swindon Wildcats showed that lightning can strike three times as they claimed their third win of the season at the Thunderdome this evening.

Ryan Aldridge’s side followed up their 3-2 overtime victory and thumping 11-3 success by getting the better of the MK Lightning in their home rink for a third time and racking up their 19th English Premier League victory of the campaign.

The hosts were the first to threaten through Lewis Hook, who weaved past a handful of challenges before stinging the pads of Stevie Lyle, but Swindon took the lead with their first attack of note.

After Jason Hedley was forced into a save, Aaron Nell knocked a pass inside to Jan Kostal and the Wildcats captain whipped the puck this way and that before tidily finishing past the Lightning netminder.

After falling behind, the home side attempted to exert form pressure on the Swindon defence but found their route to goal shut down time and again, despite Lyle making a handful of saves.

MK were guilty of gifting possession to the Wildcats inside their own defensive zone on more than one occasion and were fortunate to see Adam Harding’s attempted finish fly wide of the target.

At the other end, Lyle could only get his body in the way of Lewis Christie’s fearsome strike whilst Milan Kostourek wasn’t far off-target with a shot on the turn late in the period.

The visitors did get back on level terms not long after the break as a counter-attack saw Ross Bowers skate clear before teeing up Leigh Jamieson to tap home from just a few yards.

But parity lasted just a matter of seconds as Swindon rushed straight up the other end from the restart and restored their lead in the blink of an eye, Nell firing home after good work from Rutkis and Kostal.

As the period wore on, the clash slowly became a war of attrition as the two teams largely cancelled each other out but Tomasz Malasinski drew a save from Hedley with an instinctive effort with his foot.

But with less than two minutes of the second remaining, the Wildcats capitalised on some indecision at the back from the Lightning, with Harding nipping in to steal a loose pass and firing through the legs of Hedley to make it 3-1.

There was still time for Swindon to threaten again before the second break of the match, with Malasinki setting up Jonas Hoog but his attempt was blocked by the MK goalie.

Swindon emerged for the final period looking to hold on to their lead but it took just 16 seconds for the Lightning to hit back as Kostourek shifted to the left before cracking in an unstoppable low shot.

And Kostourek got himself on the scoresheet once again as the hosts tied things up in a flash, with the Wildcats defence caught out by Grant McPherson’s slide-rule pass, allowing the Czech to squeeze an equaliser into the net under the body of Lyle.

Despite losing their two-goal lead, Aldridge’s side hit back and made it 4-3 as Kostal and Hoog went hunting high up the ice, winning the puck back and setting up the latter to blast a superb slapshot into the bottom corner.

Malasinski pinged an effort against the frame of the goal and with just over five minutes to go, Swindon found themselves two goals ahead once again as Harding’s shot deflected in off an MK skate.

Youngster Rutkis then added some gloss to the scoreline late on as he found the net for the second time this weekend and made it 6-3.