Sunday evening saw the Swindon Wildcats secure arguably their most impressive result of the season to date when they ended the Peterborough Phantoms lengthy unbeaten run thanks to 5-3 victory in Bretton.

With brothers Renny and Jordan Marr facing off against each other for the first time in the league, both net minders were called upon early to make some important saves for their respective clubs. However, it would be the Wildcats who took the lead midway through the period. At 10:31 Edgars Bebris and Max Birbraer linked up to find player-coach Aaron Nell racing through the slot. The Cats coach fired high into the top left corner to make it 0-1. The remainder of the first period would be filled with penalties for both teams but the score remained 0-1 as we entered the second stanza.

The second period couldn’t have started any worse when Ales Padelek was able to convert a powerplay chance only 29 seconds into the period. However, things soon settled down for the Wildcats and they began to get into the stride again. Floyd Taylor produced one of the goals of the season when he was able to round some of the Phantoms defence and fire low under the arm of Jordan Marr.

Only a few moments later, his brother Loris, scored his first of two goals in the period with a similarly low finish from the slot on the powerplay, with the assist going to Max Birbraer. At 36:42 he scored his second goal of the game when he picked the puck up from Toms Rutkis, fired a shot on net only to see the rebound fall right back to him which gave him time and room to fire in and make the score 1-4.

At the end of the second period a nice bounce off the backboards saw the puck fall to the stick of Petr Stepanek who again wasted no time and was able to fire the puck in and reduce the deficit as the middle period came to a close.

Into the third and final part of the game and the Wildcats knew they were 20 minutes of important hockey away from a huge two points. The Wildcats pressure continued and at 48:41 they converted their chances again when Jan Kostal was on hand to fire home and restore the Wildcats three goal advantage.

The Phantoms continued to press on and they did manage one further consolation goal when Will Weldon was able to convert a rebound after a shot was initially saved by Renny Marr.

However, the Wildcats held on and secured a vital two points which secured top spot in the table and a place in the semi-finals of the South Cup too.