Autocraft Telford Tigers came into the game on the back of a disappointing defeat to nearest playoff rivals Solway Sharks the previous evening. Tigers held a narrow lead in the league standings and ahead of play sat in the final playoff place by just a point.
The opening shot of the game from the home side saw them take the lead. Scott McKenzie combined with Rhodes Mitchell-King to send Fin Howells in on goal. Howells cooly dispatched the puck low past Swindon net minder Renny Marr to give Tigers the lead.
Tigers were dominant for much of the first period with Marr in particular busy, keeping the puck out and the only surprise was that the period featured only one goal.
Referees Goodfellow and Poulton drew the ire of the home crowd with some questionable calls. In one particular moment, Jake Bricknell clearly held Adam Harding after the play had moved to the other end of the ice but the officials gave both a penalty and ignored a blatant trip on a Tigers’ forward. As the period reached the final few seconds, it once again seemed a penalty against Swindon had been missed when Aaron Nell and Lucas Price got tangled up and a call was not made. Price reacted to the non-call by berating the officials and was given a game misconduct penalty and ejected.
During the second period Swindon were much better and were unlucky not to score when Bricknell hit the cross bar. Brad Day in the Telford goal was in top form to keep the Swindon attack at bay.
With the game finely balanced at the start of the third period, Tigers scored on the power play. Mitchell-King’s long range shot flew past the unsighted Marr. A few minutes later, Telford had a third goal. Mitchell-King was again the provider. He took possession of the puck in the slot and smashed it towards goal. Marr was caught out as the puck went through his legs and trickled in the net. Marr was so annoyed with the concession of the goal that he skated towards the Swindon bench and was replaced by Tyler Perre.
Swindon were soon back in the game when Bricknell scored from long range with Day unsighted.
With two minutes of the third period remaining, Perre was pulled from goal. This allowed the Wildcats to take advantage of their numerical strength when Tomasz Malasinski scored from close range to set up a grandstand finish.
Despite Swindon playing out the remainder of the game without Perre in goal and playing with six attacking players, Telford held out resolutely to hold on to two huge points.
Final Score: Autocraft Telford Tigers 3 Swindon Wildcats 2.
Scorers: Rhodes Mitchell-King (2) and Fin Howells.
Man of the match: Rhodes Mitchell-King.
After the game Head Coach Tom Watkins, commented, “That was one of those nights where you couldn’t ask any more of the team, we came to play tonight every player in the room set the tone, played hard every shift and played with real quality and smarts. An excellent first period where we moved our feet, moved the puck with low risk hockey and were able to play fast, turning a lot of pucks over on the forecheck. Despite the short bench, despite this being the fifth game in eight days, despite getting home at 3am this morning, we were able to sustain the level and the energy levels.
A tremendous effort and a big result against one of the top teams in the league.”
Watch out for the latest news at Telford Tigers, visit: https://www.telfordtigers.net/news or catch up on Facebook or Twitter