Swindon Wildcats' fans were treated to 24 goals in their two weekend EPL fixtures - though they were on the wrong end of 13 of them.

A thrilling 9-6 home win against Telford Tigers on Saturday was dampened by a convincing 7-2 defeat at the Chelmsford Chieftains tonight.

The Cats have recently been guilty of throwing away good positions with the odd session of madness, but they were comprehensively undone at Chelmsford, losing the first period 2-0 and then shipping four without reply in the second.

A late rally saw Peter Russell's side pinch the third 2-1 to salvage some pride.

The cause wasn't helped by two injuries, with Swindon losing Shane Moore to a shoulder problem after just 15 seconds. Wayne Fiddes' recent head injury also flared up again to end his evening prematurely.

Tomas Janak and Ciaran Long scored the Cats' consolations in a stop-start game that saw Chelmsford amass 63 penalty minutes.

Indeed, both sides had four players each binned after a final-period flare up.

MATCH DETAILS V CHELMSFORD

Swindon scorers: Janak 1 goal, 0 assists; Long 1+0; Wheaton, Hayes, Brittle all 0+1.

Period scores: Chieftains: 2 Cats 0; 4-1; 1-2.

Shots on goal: Chieftains 35; Cats 29.

Penalty minutes: Chieftains 63 Cats 26.

Man of the Match: Ciaran Long

  • On Saturday the Cats ended their run of four games without a win by beating Telford in a goal feast at the Link Centre, writes Bob Radford.

Joel Petkoff and Tomas Janak both scored excellent hat-tricks, with two vital goals from teenager Jamie Hayes easing the pressure in the final period to send their fans home happy.

With Robin Davison and Lee Brathwaite already on the injured list, Swindon were further weakened when Slovak defenceman Jan Vrtik was ruled out with an ankle injury to shorten the Cats bench further - though Youssif Abu Saada came back into the team and did a fair job in defence.

Petkoff was fast off the mark with goals at 3.20 and 4.03, but when a shot bounced off netminder Nathan Craze's chest pads it fell to Daniel Mackriel who pulled one back for the Tigers.

Janak hit Cats' third with a good rising shot at 9.27 but goals from veteran Claude Dumas and Milan Kostolny saw the scores levelled at 3-3.

Petkoff, who had also hit the post three times, had the final word in the opening period, completing his hat-trick at 19.43 to give the home side a 4-3 lead at the first break.

Lee Richardson notched the fifth on the powerplay with a fine backhand shot at 22.05, and Janak completed his brace with the sixth at 24.22.

Former Swindon goalie Mike Brabon was peppered by no less than 26 shots in the second period, but was not beaten again.

It was Tigers' fourth from Mackriel that rounded out the second period scoring for the home side to lead 6-4.

Swindon's 20-minute goal drought ended with a simply fabulous solo goal from Janak at 44.35, weaving his way to the goal to slot home a backhand shot.

Yet on home ice the third and final period has recently been the Cats' bugbear.

This time 17-year-old Jamie Hayes popped up with two vital insurance goals, both on powerplays.

His first was a sweet angled shot to finish off the best team move of the game after fine passing between Petkoff and Matty Davies - but his second was the one that really eased the pressure.

Telford pulled off goalie Brabon, who had taken a hard shot to his helmet and put on back-up Daniel Heslop.

In between Hayes' goals Telford came back with two goals in 38 seconds - Ryan Stanton scoring at 49.30 and Mackriel completing his hat-trick at 50.08.

Hayes' tenacity rushed the puck up the ice and replacement netminder Heslop played the puck - but only to Richardson who then supplied a peach of a pass for Hayes to complete his brace at 54.57 to secure this very welcome home win.

He stepped up from the third line to show all the potential is still there and did it when it really mattered most.

While in many ways this was not a match for the purists, a total of 88 shots on target from the two teams in 60 minutes of play shows the entertainment level - it was a top night out.

MATCH DETAILS V TELFORD

Swindon scorers: Petkoff 3 goals, 2 assists; Janak 3+0; Hayes 2+0; Richardson 1+2; Davies and John Wheaton 0+3; Adam Brittle and Abu Saada 0+1.

Period scores: Cats 4 Tigers 3; 2-1; 3-2.

Shots on goal: Cats 51; Tigers 37.

Penalty minutes: Cats 20 Tigers 12 Man of the Match: Jamie Hayes.