A SLOW-BURNING Swindon Wildcats display erupted into life in scorching fashion as Aaron Nell’s side came from behind to put the Guildford Flames to the sword tonight.

Cats looked on their way to a hiding as they conceded two early goals in Surrey but the men from the Link Centre blazed back in spectacular style to romp to a 7-4 victory and claim their first four-point weekend of the season.

Nell’s troops arrived at the Guildford Spectrum fresh from a fine victory over the unbeaten Telford Tigers on Saturday night, with Cats besting their previously opponents on penalty shots after the two teams couldn’t be separated across three periods and overtime.

Most of the early pressure was exerted by the hosts but after a few opening skirmishes, the Wildcats somehow had the puck in the net from long-range, only for play to be pulled back for a penalty called on Jan Kostal for high sticks.

In the resultant power play, Guildford took full advantage and made their extra man count, with Marek Maslonka forcing home from close-range to open the scoring.

Just a few moments later, the Flames broke down the other end of the ice after snuffing out a Swindon attack and Maslonka was at it again as he converted his and his team’s second of the evening to make it 2-0.

Nell called a time-out to attempt to arrest his team’s slow start but the Wildcats coach would be the first man in white to truly threaten as he forced home netminder Richard Ullberg into a diving save as he shot goalwards from Jonas Hoog’s smart cut-back.

The visitors were in need of some inspiration and it eventually came in the form of Ben Davies, who was playing his final match for Swindon before departing to trial for a team in the United States’ East Coast Hockey League.

The Great Britain international picked up the puck in the Guildford third and danced past an opponent and then Ullberg before tucking away to clinch a superb solo effort that halved the deficit.

However, the Flames early danger-man Maslonka found himself in a goalscoring position once again as the period wore on and only an excellent double save from Stevie Lyle prevented the Slovakian from claiming his hat-trick.

Late in the period, Cats’ veteran goalie saved his side’s bacon in spectacular fashion as, after the Wildcats defence had allowed Matic Krajl to be picked out in acres of space, Lyle stood tall to pull off a vital one-on-one save and deny what looked a certain goal.

The importance of that stop was further magnified early in the second period as, during their first power play of the match, Swindon tied things up at 2-2 courtesy of Tomasz Malasinki, who squeezed a shot home from a tight angle as the visitors’ extra-man pressure told.

Penalties would go on to play a huge part in Cats turning the contest on its head.

The Flames ended up with both Andrew Hemmings and Matic Kralj in the box and with the visitors peppered the Guildford goal before Davies eventually managed to force the puck home to make it 3-2.

Then, moments later in a five-on-four situation, Nell was on hand to divert Hoog’s long-range strike past Ullberg to hand Swindon a two-goal lead and leave the Flames wondering where it all went wrong.

Cats penalty prowess didn’t stop there and when Guildford again found themselves short-handed, a sublime sweeping attack saw Davies’ first-time pass slammed home by Hoog.

Hoog was celebrating again soon afterwards when he was afforded too much space by the hosts and was able to tuck an effort away to make it 6-2 after seeing his initial shot saved.

The hosts switched their netminder for the third and final period and after shipping five without reply in the second, they hit back through captain Jeremy Lundin to hand themselves a lifeline.

At the other end, replacement goalie Michael Will saved well from Jan Kostal but from there, the clash became an exercise in game management for Nell’s men.

The hosts' Daniel Meyer did manage to haul his team back to within two goals as he fired in following a fortuitous rebound during a power play but the Wildcats hit straight back through Malasinski to grab their seventh.