THREE unanswered goals in the final half-an-hour saw Swindon Wildcats twice come from behind to claim a hard-fought win on the road at Sheffield Steeldogs this evening.

Aaron Nell’s side found themselves a goal in arrears in the opening skirmishes in each of the first two periods at iceSheffield but efforts from Tomasz Malasinski, Phil Hill and Jonas Hoog turned the game around.

Captain Jan Kostal had earlier opened the visitors’ account on the night as Swindon claimed a valuable away win in the English Premier League.

Sheffield were the quicker of the two sides out of the blocks and Cats stopper Stevie Lyle had already kept out both Arnoldas Bosas and Macaulay Heywood before Donatas Kumeliauskas broke the deadlock with just 81 seconds on the clock.

It looked like more bad news for Swindon shortly afterwards as Malasinski took a stick to the face and immediately headed to the bench to receive treatment for a brief spell.

However, Sheffield’s Arnoldas Bosas was sent to the penalty box as a result and that allowed Swindon skipper Kostal to level the scores up on the powerplay in the fifth minute.

The goal seemed to galvanise the Cats and Sam Bullas and Max Birbraer were both denied by Sheffield netminder James Hadfield.

At the other end, Lyle got his body in the way of a fierce Heywood strike, while Hill and Kyle Smith also went close for the visitors.

Swindon found themselves a man light in the closing stages of the first period as Neil Liddiard headed to the penalty box for tripping and the visitors were grateful to keeper Lyle for keeping them level at the buzzer as he pulled off a big save to thwart Liam Kirk on the powerplay.

There was another slow start for Swindon at the start of the second period as they again found themselves a goal in arrears with little more than a minute on the clock, with this time Tim Smith the man to pounce to restore the home side’s lead.

Once again Nell’s men rallied and Birbraer and Michael Stratford saw efforts clawed away by Hadfield in the home goal.

Sheffield threatened a third goal when there was a flurry in front of Swindon net but Liam Charnock could not force it over the line before there was another goalmouth scramble soon afterwards, this time at Sheffield’s end, but Adam Finlinson was kept at bay.

After upping the ante, Swindon finally got some reward on the scoreboard with two goals in little over two minutes just after the half-hour mark.

First, Hoog darted forward and laid off for Malasinski to thrash home before Liddiard then sent in a crisp shot on the angle and Hill got himself between puck and keeper Hadfield and casually helped it over the line.

Both sides had chances before the buzzer sounded but neither keeper was forced into a particularly stunning save as Swindon kept their noses in front heading into the final period.

The Cats started that one much brighter than they had the previous two and went in search of early goals that would kill off the tie but Bullas was twice thwarted by home stopper Hadfield.

Where Bullas was denied, Hoog was not as he made the most of the acres of space his was gifted in Bulldogs territory to scamper forward and lash home a goal that put the Cats’ two to the good.

Swindon kept up the pressure and Floyd Taylor dived to connect with an excellent Malasinski pass but was unable to divert the puck home.

The visitors continued to ramp up the pressure in the closing stages but Taylor and Birbraer were unable to push them further clear although it made little difference by the time the final buzzer sounded.