TOMASZ Malasinski’s strike with seven seconds of overtime to go handed the Swindon Wildcats their first away win for more than a month tonight.

After brining their five-match losing run to an end with victory over the Sheffield Steeldogs on Saturday, Aaron Nell’s side secured a four-point weekend but only after an ardous clash with the second-from-bottom Bracknell Bees.

The Bees proved to be a tougher nut to crack than their lowly league position would suggest in the early stages as they threw everything into protecting their goal.

A subdued atmosphere further hindered the visitors' intensity and late in the first period, Bracknell almost stole a march as Lukas Smital raced clear but the Czech forward was thwarted by a fine one-on-one save from Stevie Lyle.

Nell’s troops continued to find it hard to express themselves, with efforts from Malasinski and Max Birbraer forcing home netminder Alex Mettam into a handful of routine saves, and with the hosts continuing to defend manfully right through to the 20-minute mark, a frustrating first period ended goalless.

The pattern continued in the early throes of the second period as Swindon continued to stutter and another golden opportunity fell the way of the hosts as a loose puck broke fortuitously into the path of Carl Thompson but the Bees man shot wide from inches in front of Lyle’s goal.

Eventually, the contest became more open, with both teams looking threatening on the counter-attack but it took a power play with just under eight minutes of the period remaining to finally break the deadlock, Birbraer slotting home past Mettam to open the scoring.

However, Bracknell would hit back with a power play goal of their own – after making two diving saves, a grounded Lyle could do nothing but watch Oleg Lascenko arrow a superb effort high into the net to make it 1-1, former Swindon man Harvey Stead claiming the assist.

With honours even heading into the final period, Lyle made a crucial stop to keep out Matt Foord as both sides went looking for a winner while at the other end, opposite netminder Mettam just about kept out Lee Richardson’s long-range drive.

As the clock ran down, Lyle stood up well to beat away a thumping strike from Foord while the home side’s Luka Basic couldn’t take full advantage when the puck fell kindly to him, the Bracknell player skewing his attempted finish wide.

However, with nobody able to snatch a winner for their side before the buzzer, the contest would be settled outside of regulation time.

Towards the end of a frantic overtime that saw both netminders worked time and again, Sam Bullas and Neil Liddiard combined to set Malasinki free in space and the Polish ace kept his cool to jink to the side of Mettam and crash home a dramatic late clincher.