CARL Thompson scored twice as Bracknell Bees completed a quick double over Sheffield Steeldogs, writes Dave Wright.

They followed up their 3-0 win in Yorkshire earlier this month with a 4-3 victory at the same rink on Saturday.

With the Steeldogs straining at the leash, they immediately made it clear they were hungry for revenge and were quickly snapping at the Bees.

Cameron James Brownley (roughing) and Ashley Calvert (hooking) visited the sin-bin inside the opening eight minutes – and the hosts paid the penalty by conceding two goals both on power play.

Thompson opened the scoring on 4:41 with David Gaborcik and Matt Foord providing the assists.

Three minutes later Gaborcik combined with Alex Barker to set up a second for Thompson.

Pavel Mrna pulled one back for Sheffield on 17:39, only for Olegs Lascenko to finish off a move by Luka Basic and Gaborcik to restore his side’s two-goal advantage just seconds before the end of the period.

Mrna made it 3-2 on 38:22, but Lukas Smital didn’t need any assistance when he fired in Bees’ fourth on 46:49.

Sheffield’s in-form Czech forward completed his hat-trick on 53:32 to set up a tense finish.

The hosts fired in 14 shots at goal in the final period, but netminder Alex Mettam conceded just the one goal and Bracknell held on for two hard-earned points.

There was a heart-stopping moment in the final minute when the Steeldogs thought they had got the puck in the net, but the goal judge thought differently.

Mrna went over the top with his protests and at the buzzer was given a match suspension.

While the ‘no goal’ was a relief for Bracknell, a similar decision went against them against Guildford on Sunday.

Tuomas Santavuori looked to have hit the foot of the post in the 27th minute and the game continued. But at the first stoppage, the referee, who failed to see the red light come on, consulted the judge behind the net and awarded a goal.

It also cancelled out Smital’s 19:15 opener for Bees, firing home a pass from Alex Barker.

Bracknell, with the confidence boosted by that win at Sheffield, had much the better of the first period, recording 16 attempts on goal compared to Guildford’s one.

Smital and Barker then linked up to create the chance for Martin Pavlicek to restore their side’s lead on 37:03.

Marek Maslonka brought the scores level again on 46:57 with both sides creating chances.

James Galazzi put Bracknell back in front once more on 48:03, but they led for less than a minute as Andrew McKinney quickly made it 3-3.

Bees finished with 35 attempts at goal in total, eight more than their visitors.

In over-time, Mettam made a fine stop, while Harvey Stead went closest to winning it for Bees.

So the home fans witnessed their first penalty shoot-out of the season.
Santavuori netted the opener for Flames, with Basic doing likewise at the other end.

Maslonka restored the visitors’ back ahead, but Barker was unable to find the net for Bees and it was left to Jens Eriksson to win the game for Guildford despite the best efforts of Mettam.

So second-bottom Bracknell had to be content with three points from the weekend and they take their tally to 12, six behind the club immediately above them, Sheffield, with 22 matches completed.

The next two fixtures see Bees entertain Peterborough on Saturday (6pm) before going to Guildford on Sunday (6pm).

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