Sheffield Steeldogs bite a chunk out of Guildford Flames

South Yorkshire's EPL side dipped 5-3 to MK but emerged 5-4 overtime victors over Flames on Sunday.

Guildford arrived in Sheffield, looking for their second victory of the weekend and for most of the night this looked the likely outcome.

Ben Campbell and Matt Towe scored to give the Flames a two goal lead they would maintain for most of the game.

Steeldogs struggled to get quality shots on Ullberg but Liam Charnock bundled the puck past him at 34.30 only for a Sam Godfrey blast to restore the two goal margin 93 seconds later.

Arnoldas Bosas scored the Steeldogs second at 46.04 but then Flames Tom Duggan found he net to once again put them two up.

It looked like the Steeldogs (playing with only three regular D-men) were not going get anything out of the game.

With less than 90 seconds on the clock, Greg Wood pulled Sedlar in favour of an extra attacker and the Bosas took advantage. Guildford only needed to hang on for 48 seconds however Bosas completed his hat-trick with Sedlar again pulled.

Two unexpected Sheffield goals in the final minute meant a point a piece and overtime to decide the winner.

The extra space on the ice was a gift for Bosas who broke away and shrugged off the attentions of Lundin to beat Ullberg and send iceSheffield into raptures. Short on players but big on heart, the Steeldogs pulled off a remarkable comeback win courtesy of four goals from the lethal Lithuanian.

Steeldogs Coach Greg Wood said: “This was what you would call a character win - it will bring a lot of confidence to the team. We were second best for the first two periods, but the way we played in the third period shows we will always put teams under pressure.

"At times we struggled to gain possession of the puck but we played against a very good team. Guildford are probably the hardest working team I have seen come to iceSheffield so far this season and when you play against a team that is skilled and hardworking you are always going to be in trouble.

“This Steeldogs team don’t know when they are dead though. In the last 5 or 6 minutes I always felt we were going to get back into it. As soon as I pulled the goalie and we got the first one back, the belief was there to get the next goal, we just had to create one more chance. Thankfully the chance fell to the guy who is leading the league (Bosas) and he's up there for a reason, he deserves his accolades.

“We have a lot of depth in our team and we used that tonight. Tom Barry stepped up to play regular shifts and I gave a lot of time to Cole Shudra and Liam Kirk playing with Ashley Calvert. They worked hard and deserved their time out there. Those three youngsters are all under 20 years old - very impressive. If they go out and make mistakes then that's how they will learn, get the experience and become better players. You could see glimpses of it tonight.

“We have a 3 game weekend coming up, Manchester Phoenix at home on Friday, away to Swindon on Saturday and back home for Milton Keynes on Sunday. We have two training sessions booked in during the week and a rehabilitation session. We are trying to prevent injuries and blood some of the younger guys in the games, giving some of the older guys a rest to get the best out a 3 in 3 run”.

A day earlier in Milton Keynes, the Steeldogs had got off to a brilliant start with two goals from ex-Lightning favourite Stano Lascek inside 10 minutes. The home team were wobbling but were helped by a late power play after Lascek had a little scrap with Griffin and earned an extra penalty – Bakrlik putting them on the board.

Referee Boardman set the tone when he assessed Bosas 2+2 for roughing for two very gentle pushes – MK again scored with the man advantage. Andy Hirst scored on a Dogs power play before Farn tied the game late in the second period.

The result was up for grabs until 53.40 when Steve Duncombe was ejected for boarding, giving the Lightning a 5 minute advantage in which they scored twice.