Lukas Smital’s side fell to a 5-1 defeat on the ice in a match that saw an incredible 137 minutes in penalties racked up by both sides.

A win for Bees would have moved them to within two points of Sheffield, but the game turned into a battle from 19 seconds in and Bees struggled to handle that.

Smital’s men were a man down within 19 seconds after Ryan Watt exchanged blows with Sheffield’s Callum Pattinson following a slash from the former.

It was to set the tone for a brutal night at the Hive, which saw Pattinson pick up a penalty moments later after clashing with Radek Hubacek.

The resulting powerplay saw Sheffield take the lead though, as Jeff Legue fired home via the ironwork on 2.37.

It had been a frantic start and more penalties followed after the home side’s Lewis Turner and Sheffield’s Tim Smith had squared up, whilst Smital had a 10 minute misconduct charge placed upon him.

Bees went close towards the end of the period through Matt Towalski and Vanya Antonov but they couldn’t level the scores before the end of a first period that took just under one hour to complete.

It was the worst possible start to the second period for Bees as they fell further behind, with Legue netting his second of the match.

He received the puck out on the left and drove forward, before firing across Alex Mettam from a tight angle to double the visitors’ lead.

The second period had started calmly but that ended when James Galazzi and Ashley Calvert, on his return to the Hive, dropped their gloves after Calvert had lashed out at Turner.

Both players were sent to the bin but it was the catalyst for more trouble as the officials struggled to keep the focus on the puck.

Turner was the next to drop his gloves, after Greg Wood took a cheap shot on Pavel Strycek, whilst Pattison raced from the bench to get involved in the skirmish.

At the same time, Mettam and Dalibor Sedlar advanced to the centre to exchange blows as the crowd rose to its feet in excitement.

The excited crowd got their reward for sticking by their team when the Bees pulled a goal back shortly after through a Hubacek rebound.

Sedlar had blocked two efforts from Smital and Antonov, before Hubacek nipped in to reduce the deficit.

But unfortunately for Bees, it took just 47 seconds for the visitors to regain their two-goal advantage, as Legue completed his hat-trick with a rising drive past Mettam.

Bees were playing good hockey but unable to turn their chances into scores, and things got worse midway through the final period.

Tom Squires finished off a swift counter-attack on 49.56 to ensure the points would be heading back to Sheffield, whilst Lloyd Gibson stroked the puck into an empty net late on with Mettam pulled.

Bracknell remain bottom of English Premier Ice Hockey League but have several games in hand on the teams directly above.

Smital’s side have a tough weekend, with a trip to Guildford Flames this Saturday (6pm) before heading north to face Manchester Phoenix on Sunday (5.30pm).