SWINDON Wildcats notched up a fourth successive victory in all competitions with a dramatic penalty shot victory at Milton Keynes Lightning this evening.

Adam Harding and Ollie Betteridge struck as the visitors raced into a 2-0 lead in the first period but the Lightning sparked into life in the third to tie things up at 2-2.

After the two sides couldn’t be separated in overtime, Aaron Nell netted the only successful penalty shot whilst Stevie Lyle kept out every MK effort as the Wildcats took the English Premier League and Challenge Cup points.

With around eight minutes gone, the visitors took full advantage of their first powerplay of the evening after Ross Green was sin-binned for hooking, with Nell’s strike deflecting in off Harding to open the scoring.

Going a goal down sparked the Lightning into life and Milan Kostourek had the chance to hit back when he was sent clear one-on-one with Lyle but the Wildcats netminder stood tall and pulled off the save.

Lyle did well to hold on to a Kostourek howitzer and after soaking up some pressure, the visitors pounced on the counter-attack.

Kenton Smith got the move underway, Nell swerved the puck left and right before drawing a desperate save from Stephen Wall, and Betteridge was on hand to tap home into the net to make it 2-0.

Swindon saw Smith penalised but a man disadvantage didn’t prevent Jan Kostal for racing away and narrowly failing to knock the puck past Hedley late in the period.

MK set about launching a fightback in the second, with Stanislav Lascek hitting the most meaningful of their early efforts with a stinging strike that was well-saved by Lyle.

Ross Bowers’ powerful strike was also caught by the Wildcats netminder whilst Lyle reacted smartly to pull off another save when Lewis Hook met a whipped cross-rink pass.

The period continued in the same fashion, up until Tomasz Malasinksi nicked the puck off Michael Farn and draw a save from Wall, with the Lightning goalie superbly dealing with Henri Sandvik’s follow-up.

After the second had finished goalless, Hook attempted to quickly get things moving as he bamboozled the Swindon defence before cracking a shot goalwards early in the third but Lyle calmly snatched the puck out of the air.

But around five minutes into the period, the home side finally profited from a foray forward, with skipper Adam Carr blasting home to reduce the deficit after Leigh Jamieson’s shot was blocked.

After Alex Symonods was sanctioned for cross-checking, Kostourek twice went close to levelling things up before the home side had a goal disallowed, with Hook firing in but the officials spotting an infraction and ruling out the equaliser, much to the ire of the home crowd.

As the home side cranked up the heat, the pressure finally told with just minutes to go as Lascek pounced to thwack in the equaliser and force overtime.

Sandvik went close from Nell’s cut-back as the extra period progressed at a frantic pace whilst Lee Richardson blasted a slapshot down the throat of Wall as the deadlock couldn’t be broken and the game headed into the decisive penalty contest.

Nell slipped the game-winning goal past Wall whilst Blaz Emersic, Kostourek and Carr couldn't find a way past Lyle.