THE Bespoke Guardians Swindon Wildcats ensured their only game of the weekend finished in a 4-3 victory on home ice against the Raiders IHC last Saturday.

Going into the game missing four crucial players in Balint Pakozdi, Sam Bullas, Tomasz Malasinski, and Declan Balmer, the Wildcats started the game brightly, but soon found themselves a goal down when Jake Sylvester fired past Dean Skinns in the Cats net at 07:10.

Neither side was able to generate too much offence with the shots being tied at 5-5 for the opening period, but at 19:08 the Wildcats did manage to tie the game up through Chris Jones.

In the middle stanza, the Wildcats found themselves a goal down again when Aaron Connolly managed to pounce on a loose puck after a couple of attempts at clearing the puck proved unsuccessful from the Swindon defence.

However, at 26:40 the game was tied again, this time Emil Svec adding to his impressive scoring tally for the season with a hard slap-shot past Ethan James.

As the period was ending, this time it would be the home side who went a goal ahead through the in-form stick of Aaron Nell.

The Wildcats coach was the first to react when James dropped a rebound into the slot after an initial save from a long-range Stevie Whitfield effort.

In the third period, another instinctive goal from Nell extended the Wildcats lead to 4-2, when another initial save from Neil Liddiard was deflected to an unmarked Nell at the back door.

With the game dying out, the Wildcats looked to stay solid and ensure the points would remain in Swindon but the Raiders did reduce the deficit when Lukas Sladkovsky added a third goal for the visitors at 51:23.

The Wildcats would hold on and ensure they kept two points in their only fixture of the weekend.

This coming week the team are back on home ice on Friday night against the Basingstoke Bison before travelling to Milton Keynes on Saturday to face-off with the Lightning.