Double loss ends Cats' run (From Swindon Advertiser)

Double loss ends Cats' run

8:52pm Sunday 2nd November 2008 in

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THE brilliant run that had taken the Swindon Wildcats up to second in the English Premier League crashed to a halt.

Pete Russell’s team failed to bounce back from a 5-2 home defeat at the hands of Peterborough on Saturday, falling 4-2 at lowly MK Lightning.

Cats made the trip to Milton Keynes without the injured Michael Farn or Alisdair Barrow, who was with the ENL Development team.

But otherwise they were at full strentgh and scored the only goal of the first period at 13.10, with an impressive move from Joel Petkoff.

Starting from in front of his own bench, up the right wing and behind the net past all five MK outskaters, Petkoff fed John Wheaton in the slot, whose snap-shot beat Barry Hollyhead over his glove.

The Lightning struck back in the 27th minute when Michael Wales broke free with Cats changing their powerplay unit and his ripped shot beat Ladislav Kudrna over the shoulder to bring the hosts level - the third shorthanded goal that the Wildcats had conceded over the weekend.

Things got worse in the 31st minute as Alex Parez pinched the puck deep in the Wildcats’ zone and snuck a wrist shot over the glove of Kudrna.

In the 35th minute, a clearance pass from Chris McEwen found Andre Smulter lurking on the Wildcats’ blue line, and after an impressively executed pick-up, the Lightning forward released a powerful shot to extend the hosts’ lead to 3-1.

That was stretched to 4-1 two minutes into the final session with Canadian Jon Sitko the wrong side of Nick Poole in the slot as Smulter’s shot from wide left comes across Kudrna and onto the tape of the player-coach’s stick.

Cats coach Pete Russell called a timeout in the 46th minute to try and stabilise the team.

A roughing penalty against Sitko was successfully killed off by the Wildcats midway through the period, and Aaron Nell and Jamie Hayes both went close.

Fresh out of the box, some excellent footwork by Moore set Hayes free along the left boards, and the young Welshman made no mistake in bringing the Cats back to 4-2 at 55.36.

A late rush from Lee Richardson and Nicky Watt saw the Cats with a sniff of a third goal in the final minute, but the Scot’s jabbed shot was collected by Hollyhead as the hosts wound the period down.

Cats had again thrown away an early lead 24 hours earlier - hindered by a total of 50 penalty minutes.

The visiting Peterborough Phantoms powered out of sight in the second period to seal a 5-2 win at the Link Centre.

Swindon’s good form going into the tussle looked like continuing after Wheaton bundled in the opening goal a second shy of the eight-minute mark with assists from Ryan Aldridge and Nicky Watt.

But the Phantoms’ Nathan Rempel then took centre stage, scoring four times within the first 28 minutes - two while shorthanded.

Ciaran Long reduced arrears among Rempel’s four-timer, Sitko and Nell with the set-up.

But Maris Zidens ended any hopes of a comeback in the 36th minute and their were no further goals in the final period.