PENALTY trouble cost the Bespoke Guardians Swindon Wildcats their second win in as many games on Thursday night as the Milton Keynes Lightning came back from 4-1 down to take a 5-4 victory.

After the game was postponed last Friday, Swindon travelled east for the rearranged fixture and took a 4-1 lead thanks to goals from Jack Goodchild, Tomasz Malasinski, Balint Pakozdi, and Aaron Nell.

But nine penalties from the middle of the second period onwards saw Nell's men regularly trying to survive on the powerplay into extra-time - a feat they managed until one minute from the end, when MK scored the winner.

Reflecting on Thursday night's heart-breaking defeat, Nell said: "We played really well last Saturday right from the start until the end, we were dominant all night.

"We took that into the game on Thursday night, especially the start of the game, and we reacted really well to going a goal down inside the first minute by going up 4-1.

"But we got into penalty trouble in the last two periods where we were killing penalties for almost 20 minutes. If you do that, you're always going to put yourself in a bad spot - that's what happened in the end."

With three games in three nights, the Wildcats play Basingstoke Bison away on Friday evening before facing the Raiders at home on Saturday.

Predicting a tough evening after a long week, Nell said his team will have to play smartly against their young, energetic counterparts.

He said: "Their energy levels are going to be higher than ours on Saturday, so we're going to have to be really smart - like we would have to be anyway - and we've got to make a good start.

"Making a good start will be the key, play as a five out on the ice, and when there's time to pressure high up we do that.

"But when it's time to sit in and soak that pressure up, we do that too. When we get our chances, we've got to put them away. I'm confident we can do that."