SWINDON Wildcats were left licking their wounds as they were struck down at the Milton Keynes Lightning tonight.

The second leg of a daunting weekend triple-header ended in disaster for Aaron Nell’s Wildcats as they followed up their 5-0 loss at league leaders Basingstoke Bison by slipping to their most crushing defeat of the season so far.

Jordan Hedley saved well from MK dangerman Frantisek Barkrlik early on and the Cats netminder had to be at his best shortly afterwards to keep out a strike from James Griffin after he strode forward with purpose.

The Lightning’s early onslaught continued and after Hedley had kept out Jordan Cownie, he was powerless to stop the MK man from putting his side ahead as he slotted home after opening up the Cats back line with a stirring one-two with Leigh Jamieson.

Home goalie Dean Skinns was forced to frantically scramble away a strike from Nell during the visitors’ first power play of the night but their man advantage did manage to reap instant reward as Carlo Finucci cracked an unstoppable piledriver into the net to restore parity at 1-1.

Then during MK’s first power play, Swindon stole a march by hitting their hosts with the classic counter-punch as, with just seconds of the penalty remaining, Jonas Hoog regained possession and strode forward before laying off for Aaron Nell to thump home into the roof of the net.

The counter-attack continued to bear fruit for Nell’s troops and moments after Hedley had kept out Michael Farn, the Wildcats broke again and Hoog and Nell repeated their earlier trick to make it 3-1, the former squaring for the latter to fire in his second and his team’s third of the night.

But almost out of nothing, the Lightning struck to reduce the deficit, with a quick pass catching out the visiting defence and allowing former Swindon youngster Luc Johnson to divert the puck home at the near post.

After MK earned a power play late in the half, Hedley made a vital stop to ensure his team held the advantage heading into the first break of the night.

When play resumed, the Cats goalie was forced to stay strong to beat away a fearsome drive from Bakrlik and the hosts’ second period onslaught was rewarded as they broke through twice in the matter of minutes to flip the scoreline on its head.

First, Bakrlik somehow managed to squeeze an equaliser home past two despairing Swindon defenders and stopper Hedley and just moments later, it was 4-3 as Blaz Emersic squared for Bobby Chamberlain to make it 4-3.

Then, with Cats a man down on the power play, Adam Carr notched MK’s fifth of the night as he caught out Hedley with an impudent surprise strike, with the Lightning man feinting to pass before netting through the Swindon goalie’s legs.

The Wildcats rallied and began to turn the screw as they looked to strike back but Nell’s men were caught out again as Cownie seized on a deflection to fire in to make it 6-3 and their nightmare second period continued as a breakdown at the back allowed Cownie to slam home his hat-trick goal with authority.

The post came to Cats’ rescue as Bakrlik struck the frame of the goal but the home team weren’t finishing tearing Swindon asunder as another slip at the back gifted possession back to the Lightning, with Chamberlain gleefully accepting as he fired home to make it 8-3.

The opening stags of the final period offered no respite for a shellshocked Swindon, with Cownie helping himself to his fourth of the night early on, but Cats did manage to momentarily stem the tide, with Jan Kostal drawing Skinns into action at one end before Hedley kept out Emersic at the other.

A despairing MK D-man diverted a Floyd Taylor strike to safety but tensions spilled over late on, with Sam Bullas dropping the gloves on Bakrlik after he laid out Callum Buglass with a punishing hit from behind.

In the end, the whole of the Swindon team were left battered and bruised, despite Adam Harding firing in a late consolation effort.