A nice weekend away for the Cats as Tigers are tamed (From Swindon Advertiser)

A nice weekend away for the Cats as Tigers are tamed

7:00am Monday 19th December 2011 in Ice Hockey

THERE were no signs of travel sickness as the Swindon Wildcats shone on their away-day double-header at the weekend.

The Cats impressed in defeat against high-flying Milton Keynes on Saturday, and then produced one of their most clinical attacking displays of the campaign to crush struggling Telford, 8-2, on their own patch.

The positive signs were there for all to see on Saturday as Swindon were hard done by to fall to a late decider.

A very gritty encounter was deadlocked until the mid-point of the second period when home forward Nick Poole capitalised on a powerplay to fire the hosts ahead.

A second Lightning strike followed almost immediately when Leigh Jamieson converted a placed shot as MK again made the most of an extra man on the ice.

The floodgates were in danger of opening but Swindon stemmed the tide to keep the deficit at two going into the final session.

Five minutes into the period the Cats were right back in the contest courtesy of Michal Pinc’s goal.

Swindon, having tweaked their own powerplay unit, saw the tactics pay off when Pinc netted again to tie the scores.

With the momentum behind them the Cats threatened to pull off the upset going into the final five minutes but Adam Carr crashed a shot home to end those hopes late on.

Swindon took a timeout and sacrificed their netminder for the extra attacker but the visitors failed to notch an equaliser.

But 24 hours later Ryan Aldridge’s side had no such trouble securing maximum points as they crushed EPL whipping boys Telford Tigers in a brilliant opening period goal blitz.

Nicky Watt set the tone with the opener at 2.30 and the scorers were kept very busy for the next 10 minutes.

Jonas Hoog rattled in the second at 3.33 and Lee Richardson popped in goal number three just 13 seconds later.

Joe Henry reduced arrears for the Tigers just past the four-minute mark but the three-goal cushion was restored when Hoog poked in his second of the night at 5.56.

Pinc was then binned for hooking but even shorthanded, the Cats had too much for the home team and Jaroslav Cesky made it 5-1 with less than 10 minutes played.

Player-coach Aldridge added one more before the first break for good measure to kill off the game with only a third of it played.

After the action of the first period, the second was a sterile affair with the only goal coming from James Knight, assisted by Richardson, 24 seconds before the buzzer.

Cats were again guilty of taking their foot off of the scoring gas in the third frame.

Home netminder Greg Blais was carried off with a head injury after a scrambled eighth goal before the beleaguered hosts pulled one back through Juraj Senko, albeit in when five on three as the Cats ran into penalty trouble late on.