BRACKNELL Bees suffered a pair of English Premier Ice Hockey League defeats to Sheffield Steeldogs last weekend.

They were beaten 5-2 at The Hive on Sunday night, having previously been defeated 7-3 on the road the night before.

In the home fixture, Bees fell behind late in the first period when Andrew Hirst netted following excellent work from Stanislav Lascek and Ben Morgan.

The same player made it 2-0 shortly after with two minutes of the opening stanza remaining.
Liam Charnock further extended the visitors’ lead after he was assisted by Hirst and Lascek, and the latter then netted to give Sheffield a 4-0 advantage.

Bees showed their customary character in the final period, and cut the gap when Milan Kostourek scored following good work from Jan Bendik and Lukas Smital.

That proved something of a false dawn and Cole Shudra restored the Steeldogs’ four-goal advantage on 46 minutes.

Bracknell responded quickly with Smital on target – Bendik and Vanya Antonov contributing in the build-up – but they were unable to overcome a Sheffield side who made it three consecutive wins against the Bees.

The previous evening a four-goal blitz in five first-period minutes gave Sheffield a commanding early advantage which they never relinquished.

Tom Squires opened the scoring on 10 minutes and Hirst doubled the home side's  lead almost immediately afterwards.

Two powerplay goals in just under two minutes put the Steeldogs even further ahead, Tim Smith netting his side’s third before Ashley Calvert hit the target.

Alex Mettam was replaced as Bees’ netminder by Tom Annetts after the fourth goal, and Kostourek scored to reduce the gap to 4-1.

However, Arnoldas Bosas netted early in the second stanza, and Lee Haywood’s strike made it 6-1. Kostourek again scored late in the period to make it 6-2.

Bendik’s goal in the final stanza gave Bracknell hope, but Bosas again hit the target to seal victory for the hosts.

Bees visit Swindon Wildcats on Saturday (5.45pm) and Manchester Phoenix on Sunday (6.30pm).