THE Bespoke Guardians Swindon Wildcats claimed four points from six over the weekend as Tomasz Malasinski moved to the top of the National Ice Hockey League’s point-scoring list.

Malasinski notched seven points overall as the Wildcats responded to a 5-3 defeat at the Link Centre to the Bees on Friday by beating Sheffield Steeldogs home and away over the next two days.

The 1,200 gathered inside the Link Centre on Saturday night were treated to a thriller as Swindon claimed a 7-6 victory courtesy of a penalty shoot-out success.

Aaron Nell’s men followed that narrow win up with a much more commanding 7-2 result on Sunday.

Swindon’s weekend began horribly, with the Wiltshire side 4-0 down at the end of the second period against the Bees. Brendan Walkom, Dom Gabaj, Juha Lindgren, and Harvey Stead scored for the struggling visitors.

Colby Tower began the hosts’ recovery with two goals inside the final seven minutes, and when Russ Cowley netted on a powerplay at 57:07, belief that a full comeback was on reached fever pitch.

But with no goalie for Swindon as the Cats threw the proverbial kitchen sink at the Slough side, Walkom iced the game with an empty-net strike shortly before time expired.

Swindon looked to respond in the first game of a double-header with Sheffield Steeldogs on Saturday, and goals from Cowley and Chris Jones cancelled out Vlads Vulkanovs and Alex Graham’s respective efforts at the end of a tight first period.

Tower and Nell put the Wildcats on top through the middle period before Vulkanovs reduced the deficit to one early in the third.

Malasinski netted the first of four weekend goals shortly after, and Tower continued his goal-scoring spree to make it 6-3.

Inside the final eight minutes, Swindon’s healthy lead was slowly wiped out. Jordan Buesa struck the Steeldogs’ fourth before two late goals from Graham sent the game to overtime.

Vulkanovs, Graham, and Matt Bissonnette all saw their shots saved by Renny Marr in the shoot-out, and Swindon claimed the extra point thanks to successful penalty shots from Malasinski, Jones, and Tower.

On Sunday, Malasinski’s first-period hat-trick put Swindon in control, although Jonathan Kirk did net for Sheffield.

Buesa scored again for the Steeldogs during the middle stanza, but Nell notched two goals of his own to extend the Cats’ lead to 5-2.

Reed Sayers converted a late powerplay for the visitors, and Jones scored with 46 seconds remaining to cap off an encouraging weekend for Swindon.