TYLER Vankleef marked his first two appearances for Bracknell Bees with two goals as they completed a double over Swindon Wildcats with two outstanding performances at the weekend.

Bees edge home 5-4 in a fiercely-contested encounter at the Link Centre on Saturday before winning 4-2 at The Hive 24 hours later.

The four points saw them leapfrog their M4 rivals into second place in the table, a point behind leaders Peterborough Phantoms, albeit having played five more fixtures.

The 26-year-old Canadian-born forward, who holds a British passport, joined Bees last week after a spell with Nottingham Panthers.

Coach Doug Sheppard revealed: “Tyler is the impact player we’ve been looking for, he’s a strong skater with a great release. He's a great character in the room and no question he’s going to make us a better team on the ice.”

And the 6ft left-shooting player certainly did that at the weekend.

There were less than three minutes on the clock when Aidan Doughty opened the scoring when Bees were on power-play.

Sam Bullas quickly replied when Wildcats also had a man advantage, only for Shaun Thompson to regain the lead, again on power play, in the 17th minute.

Vankleef took less than two minutes of the middle period to make it 3-1 and shortly afterwards he provided an assist for Josh Smith to extend Bees' lead even further.

But the Cats clawed their way back into the game and two goals from Tom Rutkis either side of a strike from Bullas brought the scores level at 4-4 just after the 53rd-minute mark.

The game could have gone either way, however, the visitors took advantage of another power-play situation to snatch the winner through Vanya Antonov, their man-of-the-match, just after the 54th-minute mark.

In all, Bees had 29 shots on target, nine fewer than their hosts.

A day later, it was Vankleef who opened the scoring in the 27th minute with Smith doubling the lead after 32 minutes when Bees were short-handed.

Josh Martin made it 3-0 on 46 minutes and Sheppard's men looked to be coasting.

However, the Cats refused to lie down and forced their way back into the game with goals from Sam Jones and Chris Jones in the 56th and 58th minutes to set up a thrilling finish.

But when Swindon withdrew netminder Renny Marr, Doughty took advantage to slot the ball into an empty net with nine seconds left to seal a deserved victory for Bees, whose man-of-the-match was Roman Malinik.