Telford Tigers through to final on penalties
Telford Tigers made a sensational comeback to qualify for the NIHL National Cup final with a penalty shootout win over Swindon Wildcats.
Tigers were behind by three goals at the start of play after losing the first leg 7-4 in Swindon.
And they fell behind early in the second leg last night after Aaron Nell scored.
Dominik Florian replied for Tigers and Fin Howells put Tigers 2-1 ahead. Swindon scored through Edgars Bebris but Tigers finished the second period 3-2 ahead with a late goal from Scott McKenzie.
Tigers scored again early in the third period with a goal from Brandon Whistle but Swindon pegged Tigers back with a goal from Chris Jones to leave Tigers needing two goals in the last 10 minutes to force overtime.
First, Thomas McKinnon scored and that was followed by a goal from Jack Watkins to put Tigers 6-3 ahead on the night and draw the sides level at 10-10 on aggregate. Tigers thought they had won the game three minutes from the end but their ‘goal’ was disallowed by the referee.
The game went to overtime and despite both teams having chances, they could not be separated, meaning the game went to penalty shots.
Florian and McKenzie missed for Tigers and Tyler Vankleef, Nell and Tomaz Malasinski missed for Swindon.
Brandon Whistle had the chance to win the game with Tigers’ final penalty shot and he buried a wrist shot past Swindon netminder Renny Marr.
