But of more immediate concern is the team's slump in form which has seen them equal the worst losing streak in their history with five losses in their last five games. The last win was on February 3 when Lightning beat Chelmsford Chieftains 4-3.

Since then Lightning have slipped from third to fifth in the table and although a play-off spot is already assured they need an upturn in their fortunes in order not to be overtaken by Sheffield Scimitars.

On Saturday Lightning - without import Mikko Skinnari who had gone home to Finland to attend to personal matters - went 4-0 behind at Swindon Wildcats before they got on the scoresheet and the next day they trailed by third before getting a goal back.

Swindon took the lead after 4mins 1secs on a powerplay when Matty Davies crossed for Robin Davison to score. They doubled the the lead on 11mins 51secs as Jamie Hayes came from behind the goal to set up Joel Petkoff who netted from close in.

Davison then finished off a move also involving Petkoff and Davies before the first break.

Things got worse early in the second as Tomas Janak skated up the up the ice in a two man break with John Wheaton on 25mins 22secs.

Toni Alasaarela capitalised on a mistake by Shane Moore in his own defensive zone to get Lightning's first at 25mins 52secs.

The visitors narrowed the gap to 4-2 when Gary Clarke registered with a short-handed goal.

It took just 43 seconds for Ales Parez to reduce the deficit further to 4-3 and Lightning looked on course for a late fightback.

However when goalie David Wride was withdrawn for the extra skater Jan Vrtik and Petkoff both scored on the empty net to seal Lightning's fate with a 6-3 scoreline.

The following day Lightning fell behind after 5mins 31secs when Zoran Kozic put Slough ahead and Jan Krajicek increased the home advantage with a goal on the powerplay after 9mins 12secs.

Stewart Tait made it 3-0 just two minutes 19 seconds into the second session before Clarke found the net for Lightning's first on 26mins 2secs.

That proved to spark Lightning into upping their game and although they outshot Krajicek delivered a further blow with his second goal 20 seconds from the interval.

As on Saturday Parez gave Lightning a flying start to the third period when he scored within 23 seconds of the restart.

But their hopes were finally killed off as Les Millie made it 5-2 at 46mins 59secs.

Lightning were still going forward to try and get back in the game and that allowed Kozic to hit his second with 3mins 3secs remaining to make it 6-2.