Terrific Telford Tigers win a wild one

It was the table-topping visitors who struck first, after just 27 seconds, through Jakub Hajek.

But Tigers hit back and equalised with a powerplay goal from James Smith after a slashing penalty against Wild.

And Smith grabbed his second of the night in the 14th minute to leave Tigers 2-1 ahead at the end of the first period.

The home side extended their advantage as player/coach Callum Bowley scored an even-handed goal but Wild responded two minutes later through Ollie Barron.

Griffin landed himself with a misconduct penalty and Wild drew level in the 32nd minute through Shaun Dippnall.

The game was on a knife-edge but Smith put Tigers back ahead when he completed his hat-trick.

Wild put on the pressure in the final period but a number of outstanding saves from Zack Brown kept them at bay and lifted Tigers to second.

Bowley said: “I couldn’t fault any of the players, they all put their bodies on the line, worked hard for the team and battled hard to earn two big points.

“We knew that we would have to work hard defensively and take away their time and space on the puck, and we did a great job at doing that.

“Special teams has been an area which has been really good for us of late and we need to keep this momentum going. It was a great performance against the league leaders.”