BRACKNELL Bees slipped to a hard-fought 3-2 defeat at nearby Guildford Flames in a rare midweek English Premier Ice Hockey League clash on Wednesday.

The visitors started positively, aided by the Flames being given an early penalty as Andrew Melachrino received two minutes for tripping.

However, Bees could not get any sustained momentum and struggled to get into the zone as the Flames’ solid defence kept them at bay.

Bracknell kept pushing hard and applied plenty of pressure, but the Flames’ Matt Towe intercepted a pass and broke away to score the opening goal in the third minute, the strike assisted by Marcus Kristoffersson.

The goal did not dent the Bees endeavour and they continued to create opportunities.

But Guildford moved further in front just before the end of the first period when Matic Kralj succeeded in converting a penalty shot.

Bracknell hit back quickly after the restart as Callum Fowler received a good pass and drove to the net to score the Bees first goal, timed at 24:50 and assisted by Lukas Smital and Jan Bendik.

The goal gave the Bees confidence a boost and they improved on their first period performance.

This was further aided when the Flames received another penalty at 28:26, seeing Danny Meyers head to the box for tripping.

However, the Bees were then struck down a man as Fowler picked up two minutes for holding.

Both penalties timed out but the Bees levelled proceedings at 38:59 through Frantisek Bakrlik, with assists going to Bendik and Vanya Antonov.

Bracknell started the final period well, again starting strong and maintaining a lot of possession of the puck.

The play was fairly even for the first part of the period with both sides getting plenty of opportunities, but both defences also doing well.

However, there was late heartbreak for the Bees, as with Smital given a two-minute penalty for holding the stick, Guildford snatched a winner through Jens Eriksson at 57:53.

As the game entered the last couple of minutes the Bees had a final opportunity as Kristoffersson received two minutes for tripping at 58:52.

The visitors finished the game with a powerplay and Bracknell pulled netminder Alex Mettam for the extra skater to have a six-on-four opportunity to attempt an equalising goal.

After two very close near misses time slowly ran out, and Bees but could not find the equalising goal.

Man-of-the-match awards went to Ziggy Beesley for the Bees and to Eriksson for Guildford.

Both Bracknell’s games last weekend were postponed due to problems with the ice, with Saturday’s home game against Peterborough Phantoms at The Hive and Sunday’s visit to Hull Pirates both set to be played later in the season.

The Bees face a long trip this weekend when they travel to Sheffield Steeldogs on Sunday (5.30pm).