SWINDON Wildcats suffered last-gasp heartbreak in their final game of the regular season as they came out of on the wrong end of an 11-goal thriller at the Manchester Phoenix.

After an absorbing encounter which swung this way and that, Ryan Aldridge’s side were unable to give themselves a victory heading in to the post-season as Manchester’s Adam Walker settled matters with minutes left on the clock.

Stevie Lyle confidently held James Neil’s powerful drive in the early stages whilst opposition netminder Stephen Fone had to get his body in the way of Sam Bullas’ flick at the other end of the rink.

Soon afterwards, Jonas Hoog teed up Tomasz Malasinski but Fone pulled off a smart reaction save and the home side then opened the scoring with just under seven minutes gone.

Lyle had to come behind his goal to clear his lines but lost his stick in the process, with Manchester working the puck back in front of the net and setting up Frantisek Bakrlik to deal the first blow.

The Wildcats soon found themselves on the receiving end of a double salvo as the Phoenix broke on the counter and with the visitors caught changing their defensive line, Robin Kovar was able to slip around the back of the net and slam home a wraparound goal to make it 2-0.

As Swindon looked to recover from the body blow of shipping two goals in quick succession, Callum Buglass and Jan Kostal linked up to play in Aaron Nell but his strike was confidently gobbled up by Fone.

Then, with around five minutes of the first period to go, the Wildcats got back on level terms in the blink of an eye with a quickfire one-two of their own, Malasinski firing home from Nell’s cut-back before Nell himself crashed an effort into the net after good work from Hoog and Shane Moore.

Swindon weren’t done there however and there was still time for them to flip the game on its head in spectacular style as Nell was allowed to crack in his second of the evening to make it 3-2, with the Taylor brothers, Floyd and Loris, grabbing the assists.

Just a few minutes after the first break of the evening, the hosts set about hitting back, with Jared Dickinson deftly diverting the puck onto the frame of the goal from Johan Burlin’s drive forward.

Then, in the first power play of the evening, Manchester restored parity with a power play goal, Bakrlik knocking the puck inside for Walker to tuck home from close range.

The theme of one goal quickly being followed by another showed no signs of abating as the Phoenix harried the Wildcats in front of their own goal and Bakrlik eventually gained possession before drifting infield and rifling home his team’s fourth of the evening.

The goal glut eventually died down as the two sides traded blows, with Bobby Chamberlain testing Lyle whilst Fone denied Nell and Hoog at the other end.

But with six seconds of the period remaining, Kostal cracked a shot against the post and latched on to the puck again, firing into the danger area and allowing Sam Bullas to turn home from close range to make it 4-4.

Nell threatened twice in the early stages of the final period and Lyle saved well from Shaun Thompson before ENL Wildcats regular Loris Taylor put the visitors in front again, bundling the puck home past Fone after superbly jinking past an opponent.

But the drama continued as the Phoenix roared straight back and notched the tenth goal of the evening, levelling matters through Kovar.

Then, with 26 seconds to go, Walker struck the decisive blow and broke Swindon hearts as he fired in on the rebound, sending the home fans into a frenzy and leaving the Wildcats with a sour taste in the mouth.