Milton Keynes Lightning kept up their bid for a top three slot in the English Premier League by bagging five points out of a possible six as they had a gruelling schedule of three games in four days.

They only fell short of maximum points when they were defeated in a penalty shootout at Swindon Wildcats on Sunday after taking a first period lead, only to trail in the second session before levelling late in the middle period.

It followed the 7-2 demolition of Wildcats in the first encounter at Planet Ice on Thursday. And Lightning followed that win up with a hard-earned 6-4 victory over Telford Tigers when they visited Milton Keynes on Saturday.

It means that Lightning are level on points with Peterborough Phantoms in the table - although the Cambridgeshire side have three games in hand - while league leaders Guildford Flames are only three points ahead having played two more games than Lightning.

Perhaps more importantly Lightning are now within touching distance of grabbing a top four spot in the English Premier Cup which would see them through to the semi finals. Their fate is very much in their own hands as Slough Jets are the opposition for both of this weekend's matches and they currently occupy that fourth place – wins in both would put Lightning through.

On Thursday Adam Carr was the supplier as Nick Poole's men took the lead against Wildcats on 8mins 37secs. Just 11 seconds from the break the visitors got back in the game when Joel Petkoff dismissed by Swindon today – got an equaliser.

Once more though Lightning edged ahead through an Andre Smulter assisted goal by Gary Clarke on 29mins 16s and from then on the home side tightened their grip on the match with Clarke snatching his second of the game at 38mins 20secs from Grant McPherson's set up.

It was all over bar the shouting within the first two minutes of the third period with Smulter netting on 41mins 17secs and Michael Wales making it 5-1 just 23 seconds later.

Lukas Zatopek was the provider when Archer found the net for a second time on 55mins 18secs before Matty Davies, assisted by John Wheaton, got what was little more than a consolation for Wildcats at 56mins 56secs.

The lead was again stretched to five less than two minutes later with Clarke completing his hat-trick at 57mins 16secs from Lewis Christie's pass.

Clarke gave Lightning a dream start on Saturday with a goal after just 1mins 40secs and it looked as though the side would be in for another comfortable win. But Telford had other ideas and equalised through a Marek Hornak goal after some superb interpassing between him and Jason Cassells at 7mins 34secs.

From then on Lightning went off the boil a little and they paid for a slashing penalty on Archer when Cassells and Hornak again combined on the powerplay for a second Telford goal at 13mins 25secs.

It was not until early in the second session that the hosts were able to tie things up again with Archer's goal at 25mins 38secs

Lightning then survived a five on three shorthanded spell before Wales made a fantastic deflection into the net from a long McPherson pass at 34mins 35secs.

Smulter increased the gap to 4-2 just over a minute later on 35mins 44secs as the home team were very much in the ascendancy.

And an easy win looked in prospect after Tigers goalie Davey Lawrence was called for tripping and Zatopek unleashed a blueline blast into the back of the net for a powerplay goal at 45mins 39secs.

But then Lightning inexplicably allowed the visitors back in the game with strikes from Andre Niec, at 50mins 32secs, and James Knight at 51mins 49secs to make it 5-4.

Telford withdrew their netminder with 52 seconds remaining and victory for the hosts was assured when Chris McEwen sent Clarke away for an empty net goal only ten seconds later.

On Sunday at Swindon it was that man Clarke who got the scoring under way at 9mins 52secs only for Wildcats to hit back at 29mins 32secs with a Petkoff powerplay goal and then one from Ryan Aldridge 26 seconds later.

On 34mins 11secs Clarke put Lightning back on terms with what was to prove to be the last goal from open play in both regulation and overtime.

Unfortunately for Lightning their penalty goal blues struck again with Clarke, Smulter and Zatopek all having their shots saved and Ciaran Long suffering the same fate for Swindon while Petkoff's success sealed two points for the home side.