IT WAS Valentine’s Day heartbreak for the Swindon Wildcats as a Shaun Thompson overtime goal inflicted a third defeat of the weekend on Aaron Nell’s side.

Jan Kostal fired Swindon into the lead after just four minutes before Aaron Connolly had the visitors back level three minutes after the break.

Toms Rutkis scored his third goal of the campaign to hand Swindon the lead back on 34 minutes before Basingstoke were back level again with eight minutes of the game left through René Jarolin to take it to overtime.

Having had the riot act read to them the night before, Swindon, who were still without Stevie Lyle, Tomasz Malasinski and Matt Selby from their roster, started the game with intent.

That was rewarded early on when skipper Kostal fired them into a deserved lead as he capitalised on an error from Tomas Hiadlovsky.

With the Bison stopper caught out behind his own net, the puck landed at the feet of the Czech forward and he fired in from a tight angle with Hiadlovsky scrabbling to get back.

Swindon thought they had doubled their advantage prior to the first break when Adam Harding had the puck in the back of the net.

Carlo Finucci saw his fierce drive parried by Hiadlovsky and the puck bounced off Harding and into the net but the officials ruled the strike out for coming off the skate.

That proved costly just three minutes after the restart when Basingstoke put themselves back into the contest by a matter of millimetres.

Connolly fired his shot over the left shoulder of Jordan Hedley and the puck struck the bar before bouncing down just over the line, with a short debate by the officials before awarding the goal.

However, Swindon did not fold and made the most of Greener being one of a series of Basingstoke players to find their way into the bin after a hooking offence.

In the 32nd minute Aaron Nell found Jonas Höög in space on the right and the Swede fired his pass into Rutkis who span and fired past a disorientated Hiadlovsky.

Basingstoke pulled back level for a second time in the 52nd minute when Tomas Karpov dropped the puck back to Jarolin, who was left with far too much room and he fired a rocket past a hapless Hedley.

Carlo Finucci thought he had found the winner in the 54th minute only to be denied by a fine save from Hiadlovsky, before a fine double save from Hedley denied Jarolin and Thompson to take the game to overtime.

Hedley was the busier of the two stoppers in the extra time and the pressure told as Greener was given too much time on the puck and his shot was blocked by Thompson, who turned and fired low under the Swindon netminder.

Wildcats man of the match: Jordan Hedley

Bison man of the match: Tomas Karpov