SWINDON Wildcats brought the curtain down on their regular season campaign with a fine victory on the road at Telford Tigers tonight.

On the eve of the English Premier League play-offs, Swindon won the battle of the big cats and recorded a confidence-boosting win to hand themselves a four-point weekend.

Jordan Hedley had to be alert to keep out his coach’s back-pass during the opening seconds whilst Carlo Finucci was inches off-target during the visitors’ first power play of the night.

But moments after returning to a full complement, the hosts struck first blood as skipper Jason Silverthorn teed up Sam Zajac to open the scoring and they were soon 2-0 up as Swindon got themselves in a muddle at the back and gifted possession to Adam Taylor, who wasted no time in accepting the gift and getting himself on the scoresheet.

But Cats responded quickly and reduced the deficit as Stevie Whitfield, icing despite being forced out of Saturday’s victory over Hull Pirates with a facial injury, slipped a pass into Jonas Hoog, who finished well past Tigers netminder Sam Gospel.

Swindon’s Hedley was forced to save from Zajac at point-blank range before Silverthorn had his pocked picked by Hoog but Gospel kept out the Wildcats man’s attempt as the visitors went into the first break trailing by a single goal.

Once the action got back under way, it took just over 40 seconds for the visitors to net a classy equaliser as Nell drew the attentions of two defencemen down the left flank before cutting the puck back for Tomasz Malasinski to slam home and make it 2-2.

Hedley pulled off a vital stop to keep out Dale White after the hosts engineered a three-on-one situation but the Tigers got themselves back in front as Blahoslav Novak netted their third on the power play.

Swindon stopper Hedley had to be at his best once again to deny Joe Miller and Callum Bowley but the hosts were made to pay for their profligacy as Malasinski strode forward with purpose and finished with aplomb to grab his second and Cats’ third of the night.

Telford’s Gospel made a crucial save to deal with an effort from Adam Harding and then came to the fore again moments later to deny Malasinski after he was teed up by Nell.

Not to be outdone, Hedley then pulled off a string of saves himself as the two teams traded blows during a thrilling second period finale.

Swindon began the third period with another early goal and they led for the first time on the night when Malasinski powered down the right flank and knocked inside for Nell to turn home and make it 4-3 to the visitors.

Cats then quickly doubled their advantage with a power play goal moments after scoring their fourth, Hoog gliding inside from the left and Finucci taking the puck off his team-mate’s stick a he blasted home past Gospel.

But the Tigers soon hit back and Daniel Rose pulled things back to 5-4 with a powerfully-struck effort and as the clock ticked down, Hedley was forced to hold on to a slapshot from Daniel Davies and Silverthorn’s attempted dink.

Up the other end of the ice, Adam Harding tied Marcus Maynard in knots and attempted a cheeky finish past Gospel but the Telford goalie got down well to safeguard his goal before then saving from Nell.

But Finucci was played in by Matt Selby and slammed a rip-roaring long-range effort into the roof of the net and then, as Telford were hit with a late penalty, Nell had the last word as he converted on the power play to send his side to seventh heaven.