Tom Watkins is thrilled with his Tigers

The Tigers halted a run of three straight defeats in the NIHL Autumn Cup to keep their trophy hopes alive with a 5-3 win at Telford Ice Rink – just 24 hours after losing the reverse fixture to the same opponents.

And Watkins was thrilled with his team’s character.

“It was an awesome job by all the boys,,” he said. “There was a lot of commitment, we battled hard and got rewarded with some powerplay goals.

“We were able to play with the lead all night which is a big plus and I was delighted with the character we showed when Swindon tied it up.

“We had a few guys missing, but we also had some big performances. Denis (Bell, netminder) was a stand-out, kept us in it at times which gave us a chance to win and showed the quality we know he has.

“Young Henry Adams had a hell of a game against one of the best teams at this level. We threw him in at the deep end and he repaid us with a very mature performance, he kept it simple, made good decisions and was physical in the right places.

“Overall, it was a solid team effort and we played with the right energy.”

Tigers opened the scoring in the seventh minute when Andy McKinney collected the puck from Michael Crisp’s save, skated around the net and slid the puck home before Crisp could recover his position.

Denis Bell in the Tigers’ goal was then called on to make a sprawling save to keep the Tigers ahead, but they were undone when Swindon equalised during a five-on-three powerplay.

Five minutes into the second period, Tigers took advantage of their own five-on-three powerplays when Silverthorn’s pass found Scott McKenzie unmarked in front of the goal and he fired a perfect wrist shot past Crisp before McKinney scored his second goal of the night with an unstoppable shot from the blue line.

The Tigers still needed a terrific save from Bell to maintain their two-goal lead at the break, but Aaron Nell brought the scores level with a quick-fire brace. Tigers retook the lead in the 58th minute when Danny Rose went through and hit a stunning back-handed wrist shot into the top corner.

Swindon pulled net-minder Crisp for the final minute, but it would be Tigers who had the last goal of the contest as McKinney completed his hat-trickMeanwhile Tigers 2 coach Callum Bowley was happy with his side's 2-0 victory over Widnes Wild on Saturday.

Henry Adams and Karol Jets scored the Tigers’ goals

Bowley said: “I was really pleased with the way the guys dug deep and battled all night against a strong Widnes team.

“I don’t think it was our best game in terms of doing the little things right, as I thought we took some silly penalties when we didn’t necessarily have to, and I thought we were slow in transitioning up ice.

“Having said that, the most important thing is we got the win and it’s a huge boost for us this early in the season.

“I have to give credit as well to both goalies, I thought both of them were outstanding and made the game go all the way to the wire.

“We’ll be looking to carry this momentum into the game against Deeside and put in a performance.”