THE SWINDON Wildcats laid down a marker ahead of their play-off showdown with the Peterborough Phantoms by putting them to the sword at the Link Centre this evening.

In a performance built on relentless intensity, Ryan Aldridge’s men put on a show for their fans in their final home fixture of the regular season, banishing the Phantoms in a stirring encounter.

After a goalless opening period, the Wildcats wrestled control of proceedings with two quickfire goals close to the midway point of the first period.

First, Tomasz Malasinski bamboozled Janis Auzins, superbly dancing his way past the Phantoms netminder before finding the net, before Sam Bullas chased down a loose puck following Aaron Nell’s effort and teed up Jan Kostal to make it 2-0.

A loose pass at the back allowed Jonas Hoog to capitalise and cut the puck back for Malasinksi, whose instinctive close-range effort pinged against the frame of the goal.

Floyd Taylor came agonisingly close to finishing off Lee Richardson’s superb slide-rule pass as Swindon had their tails up before Jonas Hoog added a third on the counter, with the Swedish forward leaving an opponent on his backside before he emphatically slammed the puck home into the bottom corner of the net.

Early in the second period, Nell and Kostal exchanged passes before the latter drew a save from Auzins whilst Harding also tested the Phantoms goalie.

Up the other end, Peterborough’s Tom Norton hit the outside of the frame of the goal with a low strike through a cluster of bodies whilst Stevie Lyle pulled off a sublime diving save to deny Milan Baranyk after he was picked out at the far post.

When the Phantoms went down to four men on the power play, Hoog was allowed to grab his second of the game as, with Malasinski taking the attentions of Cameron McGiffin and unsighting goalie Auzins, the Swindon man slipped an effort in at the near post with ease.

In the closing stages of the period, the visitors opened their account with a power play goal, Marc Levers slamming into the roof of the net to make it 4-1.

Lyle made a reaction save to deny James Ferrara early in the final period before plucking a ferocious Baranyk effort out of the air with consummate ease.

The Swindon netminder’s team-mates then followed in his footsteps by turning on the style, with Nell lofting a pass into the air to find Hoog, who in turn set up Stevie Whitfield for a crack at goal.

His despairing effort was saved but Nell arrived to smash home the rebound to net his team’s fifth of the evening.

When the home side found themselves in a five on three power play, Nell drew a diving save from Auzins but it was the visitors that found the net as Hoog was caught in possession by Marc Levers, allowing the Peterborough man to race clear and slide past Lyle to reduce the deficit.

But moments later, Nell bagged his second of the evening with a goal from an almost impossible angle, with his strike from the right of the Peterborough net carrying too much venom for Auzins, who saw the puck slide backwards across the line.