THE Bespoke Guardians Swindon Wildcats will try everything in their power to prevent Telford Tigers from winning the National Ice Hockey League title this weekend, according to head coach Aaron Nell.

With six games to go, Swindon are nine points behind leaders Telford in second, therefore a win for the Shropshire outfit on Saturday will wrap up the race for silverware.

Nell says his team want to win at home on Saturday for two reasons – one being that they have their own play-off aspirations to take care of, the other being an attempt to avoid watching their opponents lift the trophy that Swindon won in 2019.

Nell said: “It’s at a point now where we’re 99.99 per cent sure Telford are going to win the league, but we don’t want it to happen on our ice.

“It’s a big challenge for our team, but equally I thought we took a step in the right direction last week. It was a good result against The Bees and a really good performance against Peterborough.

“We took a step in the right direction, and it’s a good challenge for us to play the top team in the league now.

“Are they going to win the league? It’s very likely that they are, but we just don’t want it to happen on Saturday night.”

A victory for the Wildcats is especially important at this stage of the season because just three points separate second and fifth.

With a potentially easier group to take on in the play-offs, Nell is keen to ensure his team ends at least third.

He said: “We certainly want to finish second or third because those two teams play sixth and seventh in a group while first play against fourth, fifth, and eighth.

“We want to finish as high as we can in the league. The play-offs are always a different ball game – teams are all trying to peak at the right time, and we’re no different.

“We weren’t at our best last week, but we’re going in the right direction. There were a lot of positives last week, and we’re trying to build towards the play-offs now.”