ON-THE-BUZZER MATCH REPORT: Swindon Wildcats 1-2 Basingstoke

The Swindon Wildcats were on the wrong side of a heated encounter on Saturday evening, as they lost to the Basingstoke Bisons.

Basingstoke ran out 2-1 winners at the Link Centre through goals from Derek Roehl and Rene Jarolin, but the match will be mostly remembered for numerous fights on the ice.

It was by far the most violent game of the season, and two players (one for either side) were escorted to the locker room part-way through the second period with 10:04 remaining. 

Before and after Kyle Smith (Swindon) and Aaron Connolly (Basingstoke) were dismissed the three officials had a long talking to to both sets of teams as they tried to restore order, to little success. 

Sam Bullas in particular often got involved in scraps with his opposite numbers, and spent a fair bit of time in the sin bin for his actions.

In terms of matchplay, the first period was goalless but the second period bursted into life with goals as well as fights.

Roehl broke the deadlock bang on 22 minutes with Shaun Thompson providing the assist and not long later it was 2-0 to the visitors.

Jarolin this time steered the puck past Stevie Lyle in the Swindon goal after he was assisted by Dan Davies and Jan Jarabek. 

Late on Jonas Hoog got Swindon back in the game, at 56:22, assisted by Tomasz Malasinski and Mark Smith but it was too little, too late.