THE BESPOKE Guardians Swindon Wildcats recorded a convincing 4-1 home win over Leeds Knights on Saturday before being thumped 5-0 at Peterborough Phantoms the following day.

Head coach Aaron Nell scored all four goals as Swindon welcomed back seven first-team regulars from either injury or Covid on Saturday.

The Wildcats lacked any kind of cutting edge on Sunday, however, as they came up empty and dropped to third in the National Ice Hockey League as a result.

In the first game of the weekend, returning import Tomasz Malasinski teed up Nell for the opening goal at 3:08.

Four minutes later, Nell scored a solo effort to double the hosts’ lead.

Although the Wildcats had survived a powerplay against midway through the first, Leeds struck in the 13th minute through Ben Solder to halve the deficit anyway.

A series of penalties against both sides punctuated the middle period with neither Swindon or Leeds able to find another goal.

Nell completed his hat-trick at 50:59, and this caused Leeds to replace their netminder with a forward in search of a route back into the contest late on.

There would be no Leeds goal - instead, Nell skipped the puck into an empty net to complete the Wildcats’ first win in their last six attempts.

On Sunday, there was something of a shock as Swindon lost by five to mid-table Peterborough.

The Phantoms were two ahead inside the opening 20 minutes as Joe Gretton and Duncan Speirs put the hosts in control early on.

Will Weldon then extended Peterborough’s lead to three in the only goal of the second period.

Jarvis Hunt and Glenn Billing completed the rout in the third as Swindon contemplated a mixed weekend.