SWINDON Wildcats’ hot streak came to an end as they narrowly emerged on the wrong end of a thrilling contest with the Telford Tigers this evening.

Aaron Nell’s side, who were the form team in the English Premier League, put in a spirited and stirring display at the Telford Ice Arena, clinching a share of the spoils with a late Neil Liddiard goal before being ultimately vanquished 39 seconds into overtime.

Nell’s troops arrived in Shropshire off the back of a fearsome five-match winning streak while hosts Telford had been knocked off top of the table the night before courtesy of a 4-3 overtime defeat at the Milton Keynes Lightning.

However, the Tigers were the only team in the English Premier League yet to be defeated inside regulation time and they began the first period showing plenty of intent and aggression.

Goalscoring chances came at a premium early on but Cats matched their opponents for desire across the ice, with the contest progressing at a pulsating pace and whenever Telford looked to create an opening, Swindon swarmed all over their hosts to protect Stevie Lyle’s net.

Meanwhile, Sam Bullas got away a handful of early efforts while with less than a minute to go, Jonas Hoog came close to beating goalie Ondrej Raszka at the near post as the visitors came close to breaking the deadlock.

A goalless scoreline after 20 minutes of play hardly told the story of what had been an absorbing contest and early in the second period, Bullas drew a save from Raszka as he looked to notch with a wraparound effort.

Telford’s Czech goalie then made a stunning reaction stop to deny Bullas again, with the Cats man teed up for a strike at goal but Max Birbraer, playing against his former team on the road for the first time.

At one end, the Tigers’ Rick Plant drove forward on the break and fired off a shot that pinged against the outside of the Swindon goalframe while Raszka was at his best once again to deny Jan Kostal.

With the game opening up, something had to give and it was Telford who got their noses in front courtesy of Satek, who managed to force the puck home past Lyle from close-range.

Shortly afterwards, Satek almost grabbed a second as a fortunate deflection put him in on goal but Lyle stood up well to make an excellent one-on-one stop while Liddiard was on-hand to prevent Doug Clarkson from converting when a fortunate ricochet left him with an unguarded net to aim at.

The Tigers would take their 1-0 lead into the third period, with Lyle saving from goalscorer Satek early on to keep his team within touching distance while opposite netminder Raszka kept his eye on the puck to block Kostal’s ingenious effort from in between his own legs.

Lyle got in front of a close-range pot-shot from Matthew Davies as the period wore on and also pulled off a spectacular save as he plucked a thunderous Satek strike from the air.

Then, with 24 seconds to go, Swindon pulled their netminder and tied things up from an unlikely source as the puck found its way to D-man Liddiard, who slammed home the equaliser from range.

That dramatic leveller forced overtime but it would take Telford just 39 seconds to clinch maximum points as Sam Zajac slotted home the winner to ensure the Tigers roared last.