THE Bespoke Guardians Swindon Wildcats lost to Milton Keynes Lightning in gut-wrenching style on Saturday night after conceding a goal with six seconds of play remaining.

A weekend which contained plenty of positives for Swindon began with a 3-2 defeat against title-chasing Lightning at the Link Centre.

After picking themselves up from Saturday night’s crushing blow, the Wildcats came out all guns blazing away at Telford Tigers the following evening and claimed a stellar 6-2 victory on the road.

In Swindon’s final home game before Christmas, a cagey and relatively uneventful first period passed without a goal for either side.

In the second period, it took just a matter of seconds for the action to begin following a penalty on Stevie Whitfield for a high stick.

Milton Keynes forward Liam Stewart finished off a slick team move at 20:49 to hand the visitors the advantage during the powerplay.

With a couple more Swindon misdemeanours having gone unpunished, Nell equalised for the Wildcats in the 34th minute.

And exactly a minute into the final period, Swindon’s head coach put his team in front on a powerplay of their own.

Yet, less than three minutes later the Lightning had pulled themselves level courtesy of Lewis Christie’s intervention.

It appeared as though overtime was inevitable as time ticked by, only for the Lightning’s Sam Talbot to make himself a hero and slot past Renny Marr with six seconds left on the clock.

Swindon responded brilliantly to the late heartbreak on Sunday though as Colby Tower kicked off the scoring spree at 13:10 on a powerplay. Tomasz Malasinski’s effort arrived just 55 seconds later to double the visitors’ lead.

Nell bagged his third of the weekend just before the first buzzer sounded to put Swindon three goals to the good at the break.

Sam Godfrey chimed in with his first of the weekend 33 seconds into the second period, and Chris Jones followed suit at 21:45 as Swindon’s dream Sunday continued in earnest.

There was a lengthy break before the next goal arrived – Russ Cowley scored a minute and one second before the end of the second period – but that would cap the Wildcats’ emphatic evening as Telford finally notched a success of their own.

Finley Howells pulled one back at 40:53 before Sam Watkins netted another in the 54th minute.

Swindon were comfortable winners in the end though and will return to action on Boxing Day when they travel to Basingstoke Bison. The return fixture at the Link Centre is due to take place on Tuesday, December 27 at 6pm.