Buzzer report: Swindon Wildcats 7 Hull Pirates 4

A first period of lethal finishing was enough to seal a 7-4 victory against the Hull Pirates in the final home game of the regular season for the Wildcats. The Cats were boosted with the addition of Ollie Stone, Adam Finlinson and Kyle Smith from the Okanagan Hockey Academy. The first period was where the Cats won the game. From the opening shift they tested Ashley Smith in the Hull net and continued to create chances of their own.

 

At 7:08 the home side managed to break the deadlock when Toms Rutkis pounced on a rebound and poked the puck over the goal-line. It wouldn’t be long before the Cats doubled their advantage when Aaron Nell linked up well with Sam Bullas and Carlo Finucci to fire the puck home for a 2-0 lead.

 

At 10:30 the two goal lead became a three. Tomasz Malasinski was fed the puck from Jonas Höög and the polish international waited for Smith to drop before firing his shot into the top left corner with a really neat finish. At 13.47 the lead became four. Aaron Nell turned provider this time and slid the puck over to Carlo Finucci who fired into the same top corner. The Swindon pressure was really beginning to mount up and the fifth goal didn’t take long to appear. Jonas Höög was able to pounce on a Malasinski pass to fire under the arm of the young Hull netminder.

 

That was the end of the night for the Ashley Smith, who was replaced by usual starter Martins Raitums. The Pirates had been creating chances of their own through the goal frenzy for the home side. Pasi Salonen and Tommi Laine having the best chances for the visiting side. Although at 19.56 they got their first of the night, Salonen saw a shot saved by Stevie Lyle but the rebound fell straight to Nathan Salem, who was able to slide the puck home.

 

The talking point of the second period occurred at 25.03 when Cats' captain Jan Kostal was ejected from the game thanks to a game misconduct penalty for boarding. The Cats faced a tough time on the shorthand without their leader and top penalty killer. At 26.07 the Pirates capitalised with the extra man. The same trio linked up again with Laine and Salonen providing the assists for Salem to fire home past Lyle in the Cats net. At 27.51 they scored their third of the night. Laine and Salonen linked up yet again but this time they found James Chilcott at the point who fired a huge slapshot past Lyle to reduce the deficit to two goals.

 

Swindon managed to increase the lead back to three goals when Floyd Taylor scored the sixth goal of the night. Some strong work from Finucci saw Taylor able to swivel and fire the wristshot into the top corner. The final period proved to be one where neither team would be able to take massive control of the contest. At 42.40 Nathan Salem completed his hat-trick converting home a rebound through Lyle. At 50.56 the scoring of the evening finished when Jonas Höög secured his second of the night. Breaking through on goal Jonas shot high above the shoulder of Raitums. That would not be the end of the action though, Höög had a penalty shot at 56:49 with a chance to complete his hat-trick.

 

Raitums stood strong and used his stick to deflect the puck away from the shot and stop the Swede getting his third of the night. Finally, at 57.17 Salonen was ejected from the game after catching Stevie Whitfield in the face with the stick, who needed stiches in the locker room and didn’t return to the action.

 

The final buzzer went and the regular season had finished at the Link Centre. The Cats ran out 7-4 victors and they now head to Telford to complete the 54 game season ahead of the playoff quarter final weekend next week.