Everyone Active Raiders captain Aaron Connolly says they need to 'fight to keep the dream alive' in the National League play-offs this weekend.

Raiders head to the Link Centre in Wiltshire on Saturday to take on Swindon, before hosting the Wildcats back at Romford's Sapphire Ice & Leisure Centre on Sunday (5.15pm).

And they go into their second weekend of post-season action still searching for their first point in group B, after suffering back-to-back defeats against Telford last weekend.

But Connolly refuses to throw in the towel and said: "It's not over for us and we need results against a Swindon team that will have their tails up after coming off a four-point weekend against a strong MK team.

"For us we just need to be believe, we have beaten both MK and Swindon over the course of the regular season, but now we need to fight to keep the dream alive."

Connolly fired Raiders into an early lead on home ice last Saturday, before Scott McKenzie netted on a Telford powerplay.

Jake Sylvester restored the Raiders lead as they enjoyed a man advantage, but Archie Hazeldine responded in kind as the hosts hit more penalty trouble later in the first period.

The middle period was only 43 seconds old when Connolly claimed his second goal to put Raiders 3-2 up, but Tigers replied with a third powerplay goal from Finlay Howells.

And it remained deadlocked until the 52nd minute when Sylvester netted his second, with young Brynley Capps putting Raiders 5-3 up with less than seven minutes remaining.

Their joy was shortlived, though, as Tigers roared back through James Smith and McKenzie to level with 85 seconds left on the clock.

And Smith put the visitors ahead with only 47 seconds remaining, before Raiders removed goalie Ethan James for an extra skater and Howells fired into the empty net to seal a 7-5 win

"It was a very disappointing result on Saturday, I can't lie," added Connolly.

"We had control of the game and let it slip by some simple mistakes."

Raiders suffered more late heartbreak in the return in Shropshire the following night.

Jesse Sutton netted in the first two periods to put Tigers on top, but Adam Laishram replied on a Raiders powerplay.

And Marco Pascale's first goal for the team squared matters with nine minutes left, only for Howells to convert on another powerplay to clinch a 3-2 win in the penultimate minute.

"Sunday I thought we played very well and it was a close game, however late penalty trouble gave the Tigers the opportunity to seal the game, which they took," said Connolly.

Raiders head into the weekend without head coach Sean Easton, as well as Capps and Joe Tomalin, who are all on Great Britain Under-18 duty at the World Championships.

The squad fly out to Sosnowiec in Poland to compete in Division 2A and face the hosts in their first match on Wednesday (3.30pm) and Croatia on Thursday (12pm).

Further matches follow against Serbia (April 20, 12pm), Romania (April 21, 12pm) and Netherlands (April 23, 3.30pm).