THE hockey gods deserted the Swindon Wildcats tonight as their pilgrimage to Coventry was blocked by the Peterborough Phantoms.

Ryan Aldridge’s last game in charge of the Link Centre outfit ended in disappointment as they were unable to turn around a first leg deficit to crash out of the play-offs at the quarter-finals stage.

Having gone into tonight’s game on the back of a 4-3 defeat at home to the Cambridgeshire side an early goal was vital to restore parity over the two legs.

However the break-through came for the hosts in the 10th minute when Luke Ferrara pounced on a loose puck to fire home from close range.

Lee Richardson pulled the scores level on the night four minutes before the end of the first period but lady luck was not on Swindon’s side.

In the final period Tomas Kana saw a shot rattle off the underside of the crossbar only for Peterborough to break down the other end and put the game to bed with a strike from Edgars Bebris to make it 2-1 on the night and 6-4 on aggregate.

“We didn’t start great yesterday but over the last four periods we were probably the better team,” said Aldridge in his last post match interview as head coach.

“The hockey gods weren’t with us tonight, you hit the underside of crossbar at one end and then within 30 seconds they’ve scored down the other end. It’s a bit tough but that’s hockey I guess.

“It’s a cruel game sometimes and we’ve seen that tonight, as we were on the bad end of it.

“A lot of the boys are down and they will be for the next couple of days, it’s always tough to get knocked out but they played hard and the boys logged up a lot of ice time over the last couple of days.

“Injuries didn’t help us, but everyone worked hard, though, which is all we could ask for.”

Aldridge gave his final post match chat in the dressing room before coming out to speak to the media and admitted it will take a few days before the reality of him leaving the Wildcats after six-and-a-half years will sink in fully.

“It’s hard to say because of the timing of it but I thanked them for their service, wished them the best of luck for the future and told them they can’t dwell on this too much,” he added.

“If we weren’t knocked out tonight we could have been next Saturday or even on the Sunday. “There’s always a sad way to get knocked out, if it’s going to happen, but I think the boys did well.”