Sheffield Steeldogs quell Guildford Flames

On Saturday Steeldogs found themselves chasing a game once again after some clinical finishing put Peterborough 3-0 up. Greg Wood was given something positive to discuss at the break when Ashley Calvert created a goal for Macaulay Heywood 18 seconds before the end of the first period.

The Phantoms added a fourth but Adrian Palak answered within a minute. The chance to close the gap further went badly when Owen Griffiths capitalised on some ragged defence to poach a short-handed goal at 31:59.

The Dogs outshot their visitors 20-9 during the period and only some speedy skating from Heywood to score saw them share the second period spoils.

The pace and intensity stepped up in the third session but Sheffield struggled to generate quality chances. Finally their efforts paid off when Liam Kirk redirected a Bosas power play last at 57:28.

Just 23 seconds later they suffered a massive sucker punch as a Padelek shot hit the post and came out – but was given as a goal. Despite protests the decision stood but it fired the Dogs up and Kirk scored again with 90 seconds left in the game. Despite pulling James Hadfield, they couldn't find a further goal and lost 5-6

After the disappointment against Peterborough, a good start was important for the visit from Guildford and Donatas Kumeliauskas gave his team that, rifling the puck home to give Sheffield the lead and trigger a rain of teddy bears as the fans got involved in the teddy bear toss for the Children's Hospital.

Once the ice was cleared the game restarted, the Steeldogs kept up the pressure but Mike Will kept them at bay. Satek struck late in the period at tie it up.

It was a tight contest and Arnoldas Bosas put the home team back in front just past the half way mark however despite more pressure they couldn't extend that advantage and McKinney tied it up soon after the start of the final period. Ben Campbell made it worse and put the Flames in front for the first time at 49:00.

Liam Charnock drove the net to level again only for Tuomas Santavuori to give the lead back to Guildford. The Steeldogs went all out to equalise and with Hadfield sacrificed for an extra skater, Ben Morgan scored with just four seconds left in the game.

Neither team could create a winning goal in overtime so the result was decided on a penalty shootout. Hadfield saved all three Guildford shots, but neither Kirk nor Bosas scored, heaping pressure on Stanislav Lascek. He rose to the challenge and sent iceSheffield into rapture with the winner.

Coach Greg Wood was pleased with the end to the weekend; “We don’t make it easy for ourselves!

"We dominated a lot of the possession we had the better of the scoring chances but we made mistakes in our own end - we really need to cut those mistakes out. We also need to be more clinical in front of the net. I think after the first two periods we could have been 2 or 3 goals up again but if you don’t take those chances it’s going to come back and hurt you. It was a massive character win. "

We always feel we’ve got a chance if we can take it to the last minute and Ben Morgan came up with a massive goal to tie it up.

“The guys we’ve brought in over the past couple of months have really made a difference. We were a little light through the middle so bringing two centres in has made a difference – Macca (Heywood) with two goals against Peterborough and Stano (Lascek) has been in the thick of points and with that big winner. It’s looking encouraging as we head towards the end of the season”.