JAN Kostal may have scored the winner and Jonas Hoog netted a brace but it was Tomasz Malasinski who was the difference as Swindon Wildcats beat Basingstoke Bison 3-2 to extend their winning run to double figures.

More than 1300 fans filled the Link Centre but it was a similar story as they watched their team struggle to get out of the starting blocks but the Polish forward took the game by the scruff of the neck and pulled Swindon into overtime.

With Shane Moore in the sin bin for tripping it looked as though Swindon’s run of nine games unbeaten was destined to come to an end but Malasinski was able to break, shrugging off his defender and despite seeing his shot blocked by Dean Skinns, captain Kostal, who had missed a large part of the first period with a broken skate, was on hand to lift the roof off the ice rink.

"To win ten in a row is a first time for us since I have been back in Swindon so it is massive, especially in front of a crowd like that as well," said head coach Ryan Aldridge who is not getting carried away with the run of form.

"We struggle with their three lines that come at you and we talked a lot about moving the puck quickly and getting back quickly and getting out of our zone and I think we struggled with that in the first.

"We talk about little things, but good habits and winning is a habit and we found a win.

"Jan's goal at the end was massive, especially on the short hand and it all came from Tomasz's work rate and he had a role in all three goals and I thought he was outstanding tonight.

“We’re just going to concentrate on it game by game but we want to keep going up the table and pushing the teams below us away from us.

Ciaran Long gave the visitors a well deserved lead in the first period before Malasinski capitalised on a slip from Miroslav Vantroba in the second to set up Hoog to level the game.

The Cats again fell behind in the third period when Joe Greener struck but the lead lasted less than three minutes as Hoog was again found by Malasinski to fire a fierce shot past Skinns to take the contest to overtime.

That goal changed the game, according to Aldridge, who admitted his players were tired after the Christmas break, “Some of the boys were tired so we had to play a slightly different game but the boys were outstanding again.

“You get out of shape a little bit after ten or twelve days. You don’t feel the puck and it’s tough.

“The first two games I expected to be tough and tonight was always going to be tough but we have just got to re-group now and get back to game shape.”