AARON Nell’s late hat-trick was enough to get his side both points on offer as the Wildcats defeated the Hull Pirates 6-4 at the Link Centre.

The first period was a frantic affair, with the Hull Pirates going close early on after Stevie Lyle reacted quickly to put the puck on the post.

But it was the hosts who would make the breakthrough as  Nell was found by Jonas Hoog, and the Swindon man made no mistake by finding the back of the net in the third minute.

After a combative period it was the Wildcats who doubled their lead when Sam Bullas got himself on the score sheet, to put Nell’s men 2-0 up on 10:40.

Despite being 2-0 down, Hull always looked a threat going forward and that soon showed when Lyle was unable to prevent them from halving the deficit.

With the clock reading 14:16, Josh Gent made the most of a scramble at the feet of Lyle to poke home Hull’s first of the game.

The visitors were then able to level the game just over a minute later as Jason Hewitt was able to find the back of the net.

Swindon then went close to getting back in front when Nell found himself free on the right hand side, but his cut back to Thomasz Malasinski was intercepted.

The second period was vastly different from the first as the hosts regained the lead through Malasinski in the 24th minute to make it 3-2. The remainder of the second period was a scrappy game as Swindon dug deep to deny Hull any sniff of Stevie Lyle’s goal.

Swindon were dogged in their defence of their lead, which put them in a great position heading into the third and final period.

The third period got off to a shaky start as Bullas was told to serve a two minute penalty for charging after just 15 seconds.

Thankfully they managed to hold on well, knocking the puck long to run down the clock, before then returning to full strength at 3-2.

Then in the 48th minute, Hull’s Hewitt leveled the game again to make it 3-3 after a string of saves from Lyle.

A really unlucky goal to concede as the puck cannoned off of the bar, straight into the path of Hewitt who applied a simple tap in.

But it was Nell to the rescue as he hit a hat-trick within three minutes to put his side 6-3 in the lead with less than six minutes to play in the final period. 

The first came at 51:08 when he fired his side back into the lead when he latched onto a loose puck and slotted it into the net.

One minute later Nell put his side further in the lead when his long range effort evaded everyone including the visiting netminder, to make it 5-3, before adding his third in the 54th minute.

Hull Pirates then had one last word when Jaroslav Sarsok made it 6-4 with time running out fast.