SWINDON Wildcats bounced back from their Autumn Cup semi-final heartbreak to pick up three of four NIHL South One points over the weekend.

The Cats shared a 3-3 draw at home to Peterborough Phantoms on Friday in the second leg of their Autumn Cup semi, with the visitors taking the victory 7-6 on aggregate.

Aaron Nell’s side had to follow that up with two road games in the league and suffered a penalty shoot-out defeat at Basingstoke Bison on Saturday following a 2-2 draw, before then claiming a narrow 2-1 win at Invicta Dynamos on Sunday.

Swindon got their weekend off to a slow start and trailed to Richard Bordowski’s early goal for Basingstoke in the first period on Saturday before Russ Cowley doubled the lead in the opening skirmishes of the second session.

The Cats rallied, though, and player-coach Nell got his side back into the match just before the half-hour mark and Sam Bullas then got the only goal of the third period to send the game into overtime.

No winning goal was forthcoming in the additional five minutes, meaning penalties were needed to determine the winner.

However, Swindon’s shooting was wayward when it mattered most and captain Jan Kostal, Chris Jones and Nell all failed to hit the back of the net as Basingstoke took the extra point.

The Cats were able to get the job done on Sunday, though, edging out Invicta Dynamos courtesy of Jones’ late strike.

Again, Nell’s side were forced to come from behind as Matt Foord gave Invicta the lead in the first period before the two sides played out a goalless second session.

However, Swindon raised their game in the third period and Loris Taylor levelled the scores before Jones fired a late winner for the visitors.