A SPIRITED performance wasn’t enough for the Swindon Wildcats to halt the Hull Pirates’ flying start to the season this evening.

Aaron Nell’s side tackled their second away assignment of the 2016-17 campaign at the Hull Ice Arena but came out on the wrong end of a pulsating encounter in East Yorkshire as they were overcome by the English Premier League’s early pacesetters.

Nell’s troops arrived off the back of their first home win of the season over the Manchester Phoenix on Saturday but their hosts boasted a perfect courtesy of three straight victories.

Cats looked full of intensity in the early stages, with Tomasz Malasinki drawing a save from home netminder Jordan Marr, but with less than five minutes on the clock, the hosts passed up a gift-wrapped opportunity to open the scoring.

Hull's former Wildcats man Ryan Watt broke clear on his own and found himself one-on-one with Stevie Lyle.

His shot beat the Swindon stopper but not the post, with the puck pinging back off the frame of the goal and letting the visitors off the hook.

During the first power play of the match, a Jan Kostal thunderbolt was somehow kept out by a combination of Marr and the goal-frame and the Pirates goalie was also forced into action to deny another Malasinski effort.

Swindon did eventually take the lead, albeit with a huge slice of good-fortune.

After an attack broke down, Ben Davies had the puck behind the goal and his attempted pass took a huge deflection before sliding into the goal through the legs of goalie Marr.

The visitors could well have been two goals to the good shortly afterwards when, despite being a man down, Malasinski stole possession and sent Nell racing clear with an inch-perfect pass but the Cats chief missed the target with only Marr to beat.

Hull got themselves back on level terms when Jason Hewitt received the puck in space and slammed home an unstoppable howitzer from range, which goalie Lyle had no chance of halting.

Before the first period was out, Marr stuck out a pad to make a superb reaction save from Nell and at the other end, Ugnius Cizas set up Lee Bonner but he was denied by Lyle.

And with less than a minute to go, the hosts managed to turn things around as, after piling on the pressure, the puck diverted into the net off Watt to make it 2-1.

After the heights of the first period, the contest became scrappier early in the second as the two teams largely cancelled each other out, although Cats’ Max Birbaer and the Pirates’ Stanislav Lascek both drew saves from their respective opponents’ netminders.

Kyle Smith attempted to haul his team back level when he broke at pace and went for power as he bore down on Marr’s net but his shot was just over.

Soon after, the hosts’ Hewitt was denied by Lyle after gliding forward with confidence while Hull goalie Marr knocked away another Malasinski effort.

Swindon had Neil Liddiard sin-binned as they looked to find a way back into the game and despite being a man down, Davies was soon celebrating his second of the match.

The Hull defence somehow left the Swindon man completely open and Davies was able to seize upon a loose puck before rounding Marr to tie things up at 2-2.

It was anyone’s game in the third and final period and despite both Nell and Jonas Hoog testing Marr early on, the Pirates went up the other end and got their noses back in front via Andrej Themar.

From then on, Cats went looking for a way to try and get back on level terms once again and they rapped on the door for long spells but the Hull defence and Marr held firm.

Nell’s men remained on the front foot as the clock ticked down and were eventually caught with the classic counter punch, with the Pirates breaking and allowing Themar to fire in his second and the hosts’ fourth of the game.

Cats pulled netminder Lyle in the final minute but that roll of the dice failed to pay dividends, with Nell blocking Hewitt's goal-bound effort to prevent the home side from adding to their winning margin.