BRACKNELL Bees picked up their first point in eight games when losing 2-1 to Swindon Wildcats after a penalty decider at The Hive on Sunday, writes Dave Wright.

A third-period equaliser from Olegs Lascenko left the score at 1-1 at the end of regular and then over time, and goals were also difficult to come by in the shoot-out with only one converted.

It was a game, however, that the Bees could and should have won, as they had 37 shots on goal compared to Swindon’s 22. Their failure to convert chances has been their weakness all season.

Leading scorer Luka Basic returned from injury and he soon made his presence known with Bees applying early pressure that had the Wildcats struggling to clear their lines.

But, as so often happens, Bees were made to pay for their missed chances when Swindon grabbed the lead in the 15th minute against the run of play. Jordan Kelsall’s pass found Jonas Hoog in the clear on the left and the Swede fired an unstoppable shot past netminder Alex Mettam.

Wildcats had six goal attempts in the opening 20 minutes, while the hosts had twice as many. And the second period followed a similar pattern with Bees out-shooting their rivals 9-5.

The nearest they came to netting came from a Danny Ingoldsby effort which netminder Steve Lyle blocked before seeing the puck scrambled away.

Going into the third period, Bracknell were still very much in the game and they must have felt this was a game they were capable of winning.

Player-coach Lukas Smital showed his belief with a powerful surge, only to see his effort fly past Lyle onto the crossbar.

Basic shot weakly when well placed, while Rio Grinell-Parke and Josh Tetlow were also not far away from finding the net.

The pressure eventually paid off on 53:36 when Lascenko crashed the puck home from out on the right with Carl Thompson and Tetlow getting the assists. It was a goal that Bees thoroughly deserved.

Both sides created opportunities to settle the issue in the closing stages with the hosts also unable to take advantage of a power-play.

The opening seconds of overtime nearly produced a goal for Basic, while Sam Bullas was only inches away for the visitors.

Basic was then penalised for interference, joining Floyd Taylor in the sin-bin after the Wildcats had been caught having too many men on the ice.

It wasn’t the Slovenian’s night, as he was the first of the Bees trio to miss in the penalty shoot-out with Shaun Thompson and Alex Barker following suit. The only of the sextet involved to hit the target was Jan Kostal, who was second to go for Swindon.

Not taking their chances also cost Bracknell last Thursday, when they outshot Peterborough Phantoms 38-34, but lost 3-0 with all three goals coming in the opening nine minutes.

Bees were missing Josh Smith, Scott Spearing and Basic all through injury, as well as Grinell-Parke (on GB under-18 duty) and so were not helped when losing James Galazzi just before the halfway stage of the game. He collided with net-minder Janis Auzins, but the referee claimed he had slashed the back of the Austrian’s legs and deemed it a match penalty.

In the opening period Bees had given Auzins a difficult time with several scrambles around the net and the big goalie certainly did not look comfortable.

Bees have now failed to beat the Phantoms in 23 attempts.

They remain second bottom of the table, six points behind Sheffield above them, but will be looking to close that gap when they visit the Steeldogs this Saturday (7.30pm). They have already won there this season.

Bees will then be entertaining Basingstoke Bison at The Hive on Sunday (6pm).