SAMI Ryhanen is hoping that his wealth of experience can be a key factor in getting the Swindon Wildcats’ back on track in the English Premier League.

The 35-year-old Finn, who is in his first season in English hockey’s second tier after previous spells with Nottingham Panthers and Dundee Stars in the Elite League, is part of a Swindon side that have been beaten twice on the bounce – Cats followed up Sunday’s 6-0 loss at Guildford Flames with a 5-2 home defeat at the hands of Milton Keynes Lightning on Wednesday night.

Ryhanen, who has played across the continent, including in Italy, Denmark and his native Finland, is one of the elder statesmen in Stevie Lyle’s squad and he sees it as his job to lend a helping hand to his less-seasoned team-mates.

“We have a lot of young guys here so as an import, you have to try and get the younger guys going,” said Ryhanen.

“We just try to work as hard as we can on the ice and they can watch us and see what the more experienced guys are doing – I hope they can learn something from us.

“If I can do that, I’m happy. I’ve obviously seen a lot of things and different leagues and learned a lot about hockey, so if I can teach them something, it’s good and a bonus.

“We work hard – that’s not the problem – but we just make pretty much the same mistakes every game.

“But we have a great group of guys here. Everybody has fun in the locker room and gets involved with everybody, so I’m sure it’s going to be fine.

“It doesn’t matter if you play home or away – it’s the same puck; the same ice. Obviously, it’s nice to play in front of our home fans but if we want to achieve something, we have to play exactly the same away and win those games too.”

The Link Centre men tackle two matches on the road, visiting Hull Pirates on Sunday and Peterborough Phantoms on Sunday.

Bench coach Kenton Smith is urging fans to be patient as Cats look to get back on an upward curve.

Smith said: “I think in areas, we are improving, but we still have a ways to go.

“Just believe in us because the guys are trying their best and we’ll give it our all every night to get Ws at home and on the road.

“Obviously, you never want to lose at home and you want your fans to come back every weekend and they’ll come back when you’re winning.

“Road, home; it doesn’t matter. We want to win.

“We want to win trophies this year and that’s our main goal, and right now we just need everybody to not get too down – we’ll get out of this.”

Forward Sam Bullas returns after being unavailable for Wednesday’s loss to MK.