A DOUBLE from Aaron Connolly was enough for Basingstooke Bison to end Swindon Wildcats run of five straight wins with a narrow 2-1 victory.

It was a spirited performance from the Wildcats on what was always going to be a tough night as they face a Bison side sitting second in the league, but they did not create enough chances to warrant anything from the game.

Connolly opened the scoring for the hosts with just over a minute on the clock but Tomasz Malasinski was on hand at the start of the second period to equalise.

It was Connolly again who was the difference in the final period though as he scored a fine individual goal after a sustained period of pressure from the hosts.

After talk in the week that the hosts would come out strong, the last thing Ryan Aldridge would have wanted to see was the puck ending up in Stevie Lyle’s goal after less than two minutes.

Joe Rand went around the back of Lyle’s goal and managed to squeeze the puck under the goalies body and Connolly was able to tap home at the far corner.

It was a poor half for Swindon as they were restricted to long range efforts from Jonas Hoog and Ollie Betteridge as they only amassed four shots on Dean Skinns goal.

At the other end Lyle was continuing his recent good form to keep the Bison at bay pulling off several good saves from Joe Rand and Doug Sheppard.

It was a different story in the second half as Swindon took just under three minutes to restore parity, in what was an uneventful twenty minutes.

It looked like Hoog had missed his opportunity, after latching onto a mistake from the hosts, but after turning he picked out Malasinski perfectly who fired first time home.

The hosts restored their lead in the 37th minute when Connolly wrong-footed Wildcats D-man Callum Buglass to round him and fire low past Lyle, who had earlier made a series of fine saves to keep the scores level.

Cats pushed for a way back into the game but that was hindered when Shane Moore was ejected from the ice for a check to the head on Ciaran Long.

Connolly nearly completed his hat-trick in the final minute but he saw his effort fly off the post with Lyle well beaten.

Aldridge pulled goalie Lyle with seconds remaining but to no avail and it was almost the home side who took advantage with a long range effort from there own half, and even though it ended in the net the buzzer had already gone.

Swindon will now look to bounce straight back when they host MK Lightning tomorrow night at the Link Centre.