James DeMeo’s hat-trick helped Aberdeen Lynx return to the top of the SNL table after sweeping past North Ayrshire Wild to overtake Dundee Tigers.

With Tigers unexpectedly idle at the weekend, Jordan Leyden’s side’s task was a simple one as they entertained the team at the bottom of the table and restored themselves at the summit on head to head.

And 11 goals later – of which Lynx scored ten of them – it was a good night’s work as the home fans in a sell-out Linx Ice Arena enjoyed their night.

Aberdeen were three up inside the first period as Nils Tanner opened the scoring, with Jack Flynn and Gary Kelly joining them on the scoresheet.

Jonathan Hogan added a fourth before the second period, but it started raining goals in the third period as the title challengers upped the ante against a Wild side with only 13 skaters.

DeMeo’s first came early in the final session, with Tom Morgenthaler firing in North Ayrshire’s consolation to give them something to cheer about.

But Lynx didn’t let up as DeMeo with a further two, Tanner with his second, Leyden and a shorthanded Hogan finish completed the job on the night.

Edinburgh Capitals picked up one win from their two games over the weekend, which was enough to take them into fifth place ahead of champions Kirkcaldy Kestrels in the standings.

Saturday’s home game at Murrayfield saw them visited by Kilmarnock Thunder, who followed up last week’s win over Dundee Comets with a 9-6 success over Steven Lynch’s team.

Torran Anderson scored twice to set the tone for Thunder and while Kyle Carruth got one back for the Caps, Kilmarnock were 4-1 up by the end of the first as Innes Gallagher and Keir Anderson added further markers in the space of a minute.

Euan Gallagher scored another for the visitors and despite Ross Borwick’s finish, Ross Chalmers restored the four-goal lead to 6-2 after two.

Seven goals in the final ten minutes made it an entertaining end to the game as Edinburgh were on target through Aaron Robertson (twice), Sean Cochrane and Kian Shevlin.

But Thunder kept ahead through two more from Innes Gallagher for his hat-trick and a single Marcus Murdoch finish made it two wins in their last two for the Ayrshire side.

Capitals didn’t have time to feel sorry for themselves as they headed to Braehead Arena on Sunday where Paisley Pirates waited to greet them.

Pirates got the perfect start as Calum Blair opened the scoring, but Edinburgh were soo ahead as Kyle Carruth scored twice with Andrey Ogloblin adding a third.

Paisley fought back as Garry Simpson then Marty Simpson each scored to tie the game with four minutes to go, but Kian Shevlin struck with 70 seconds to clinch the win for the Caps.

One other game scheduled for the weekend was a Dundee derby as Dundee Tigers and Dundee Comets were meant to come together for SNL points.

But a “catastrophic ice plant failure at Dundee Ice Arena”, said the Tigers’ Facebook post announcing the postponement put paid to any action.

However it has since been repaired and although there’s no more SNL games scheduled for the rest of the year on Tayside, it just leaves a job of finding a new date for the postponed game.

WEEKEND RESULTS

Saturday

Aberdeen Lynx 10 North Ayrshire Wild 1

Dundee Tigers vs Dundee Comets  – GAME POSTPONED

Edinburgh Capitals 6 Kilmarnock Thunder 9

Sunday

Paisley Pirates 3 Edinburgh Capitals 4