EPL: Hull still searching for elusive regulation win while Steeldogs recover to blast away Bees

It meant another pointless weekend for Dominc Osman’s team after they went down 6-1 at home to Mancheter Phoenix.

But while The Pirates were unable to bounce back from defeat, Yorkshire rivals Sheffield Steeldogs did so, quickly forgetting about their 5-0 defeat at Basingstoke Bison on Saturday by thumping Bracknell Bees 7-3, a result that leaves Hull seven points adrift of the play-off places with just under a third of the season gone.

After going into a two-goal lead through strikes from Tim Smith and Stanislav Lascek, the Steeldogs then handed the advantage to their Berkshire visitors, who went 3-2 ahead by the end of the second period through goals from Milan Kousterek, Jordan Smith and Ivan Antonov.

But player-coach Greg Wood’s team came out firing after the second interlude and romped home by scoring five unanswered goals.

Tom Squires pounced to levvel on the powerplay before Lascek’s second of the night gave the home side the lead once again.

Arnoldas Bosas made it 5-3 before Liam Charnock stretched the advantage to three goals - Tim Smith adding an empty-net strike with just eight seconds remaining.

It was a stark contrast to 24 hours earlier in Basingstoke when the Steeldogs had been shut out by the hosts.

Two goals in the first seven minutes from Tomas Karpov put Bison in control, with the only goal of the middle period coming from Ciaran Long.

Strikes from Alan Lack and Joseph Greener completed a miserable night for Wood’s players.

For Hull, Sunday night in Peterborough proved to be a nightmare, Osman’s team finding themselves 7-0 down before the first period break.

The second period, by comparison, was a massive improvement with Will Weldon being the only scorer.

But a further three goals in the last 10 minutes for the home side – including a fourth on the night for the prolific Milan Baranyk – just added insult to injury for Hull.

On home ice against Manchester the previous evening, Hull had taken a sixth-minute lead through Tommi Laine.

But the home team were chasing the game by the end of the first period after a 10th minute strike by Ben Russell for Manchester was followed by a further goal four minutes later from Stanislav Gron.

Just bedfore the end of the second period, Michel Satek made it 3-1, with Gron grabbing another goal just over two minutes into the third.

A powerplay strike from Robin Kovar followed at 50.14, before Russell’s second of the night completed the scoring just over five minutes later.