SWINDON Wildcats made it three home wins out of three at the start of the new season this evening with a comfortable defeat of Invicta Dynamos in NIHL South One.

The victory is a fourth in five matches for Aaron Nell’s side in all competitions as they continue to hit the ground running in 2017-18 and makes it five points from a possible six in the league.

The scores were tied at 2-2 just after the half-hour mark at the Link Centre but a storming finish to the contest saw Swindon finish comfortable on top having led 7-2 at one stage, with Chris Jones and captain Jan Kostal leading the way with two goals apiece.

Swindon roared out of the blocks and broke the deadlock with just 21 seconds on the clock. Stevie Whitfield drilled the puck towards the Invicta goal and Phil Hill pounced to poke it past netminder John Dibble.

Cats keeper Renny Marr then made a smart save from Adam Rehak before Dibble pushed away a powerful strike from Kyle Smith.

A penalty for Dynamos then handed the home side the initiative and although Nell, Kostal and Sam Zajac all went close on the power-play, there was no way through Marr then had to be at his best to keep out Rehak but indiscipline soon began to hurt Swindon and their third penalty in the opening dozen minutes allowed Scott Bailey to level things up with a deflected effort.

Ondrej Zosiak then drilled a long-range effort straight at Mar, while Dibble plucked a strike out of the air from Max Birbraer at the other end.

The Wildcats were able to get their noses in front before the buzzer sounded, though, when Nell let fly from distance and the effort cannoned back off Dibble and fell nicely for Jones to tuck home.

Swindon were on the front foot immediately after the restart as Kostal sent an effort just wide before Floyd Taylor saw an effort come back off the post.

Birbraer darted forward and threaded in Hill but he blazed straight at Dibble, with the Invicta stopper then able to keep both Sam Bullas and Jordan Kelsall at bay too.

At the other end, Marr made good saves from Louis Colvin and Rehak before the latter was able to find a way past the Swindon stopper to restore parity on the scoreboard.

However, that only served to fire the Cats up and they retook the lead less than 40 seconds later, with that the first of three goals in the space of three minutes.

First, Birbraer cut the puck back across goal for Kelsall to smash home and restore the Cats’ lead before the same pair combined as Kelsall shot narrowly wide, with the effort bouncing back to Birbraer to finish off on a narrow angle.

Swindon then pushed their cushion to three goals heading into the final period when Kostal beat Dibble all ends up after Nell dragged the puck back into his path.

The onslaught almost continued in the opening period of the third period but Whitfield could not quite squeeze the puck past Dibble at his near post.

All the chances were coming the way of Nell’s troops and the woodwork was next to deny them a sixth goal as Kelsall saw a cracking effort come back off the bar.

The hosts were not to be kept at bay for long and Jones was the man to eventually further increase the lead, rifling home after being picked out in space by Kostal.

Captain Kostal then went from provider to scorer as he made it a magnificent seven for the home side with his second of the night too after good work from Nell.

It was not all one-way traffic and goals from Tom Ralph and Callum Fowler added a bit more respectability on the scoreboard for Invicta in the closing stages but it was much too late to deny the Cats their win.