SWINDON Wildcats suffered a heartbreaking loss at the Link Centre as they were beaten 6-5 by Basingstoke Bison in overtime. 

Aaron Nell will be frustrated with the way they lost grip of  the game after seeing a 4-2 lead overturned in the second period.

Ben Nethersell, Jordan Kelsall and Robin Kovar were all on target, while Max Birbraer weighed in with two goals.

Initially the game got off to a scrappy start and that was reflected in Swindon’s opener when Nethersell bundled the puck into the net with seven minutes gone.

Two minutes later Rene Jarolin restored parity before Bison took the initiative when Aaron Connolly added his name to the scroresheet in the 10th minute.

The second instalment was a frantic affair, despite trailing at the start, a double from Birbraer put the Wildcats in the driving seat for the second time.

The first of his two was another scruffy effort, the visiting netminder, Tomas Hiadlovsky, got a substantial touch on the puck but it looped in over his head.

His second was also down to another howler from the Hiadlovsky, who left his goal to claim the puck but got nowhere near it, allowing Birbraer to nip round the post at tuck it home as the scoreboard read 3-2 to Nell’s troops.

Kelsall, who had been impressive throughout, got the fourth as Swindon looked to turn the screw on their opponents.

Thomasz Malasinski did well to pick out the teenager who then showed great composure to stroke the puck into the net.

With a two goal advantage you would think the Wildcats may  try to see out the period, but it wasn’t to be as they collapsed in the final 10 minutes.

 Grant Rounding got his first in the 33rd minute to make it 4-3 after jinxing his way through the home defence.

Thomas Karpov then made the game even again with a close range finish in the 36th minute before Rounding bagged his second with 18 seconds left to hand Basingstoke a 5-4 lead going into the final period.

As the Wildcats continued to hunt for another equaliser, they’ll be thankful to their netminder who made a series of crucial saves to keep them in contention.

The pressure was building on Basingstoke as they edged closer to a narrow victory, but luckily for the Cats Kovar was on hand to level proceedings with eight minutes to play.

Neither side were able to land the telling blow as the game was forced into overtime.

Jonas Hoog had the best chance to seal the win for Swindon when he was awarded a penalty shot during overtime.

But the Swede couldn’t convert, before Stuart Mogg  wrapped up the victory for the visitors in the 63rd minute.