EPL: Sheffield Steeldogs and Hull Pirates striving to bounce back

It follows a disappointing 48 hours which saw the Steeldogs lose ground on the top six after following up a 5-1 home loss to a resurgent Telford Tigers with an 8-3 defeat on the road at Peterborough Phantoms.

Missing leading scorer Arnoldas Bosas who was away on international duty with Lithuania, Liam Charnock’s 20th-minute strike saw the Steeldogs go in level at the first-period break at Ice Sheffield only for Telford to run away with the game with four second-period strikes.

In Peterborough, the hosts were 5-0 up inside 35 minutes.

Charnock reduced the deficit at 38.42 only for Ales Padelek to restore his side’s five-goal lead almost immediately.

An already bad-tempered game erupted shortly before the second interval, with Steeldogs’ player-coach Greg Wood sent to the box along with Craig Elliott and Callum Pattinson, while Greg Pick, Will Weldon and Janis Auzins joined them on the other side of the glass.

In a relatively calm third period, the Steeldogs matched the league’s second-placed team for goals, Cole Shudra and Stanislas Lascek getting on the board, but it was too little too late.

“We were disappointed not to pick up any points,” said Morgan after the two defeats left the South Yorkshire team six points adrift of sixth-placed Telford with 11 games remaining.

“We will have a good week in practice and come back with a game plan, a fresh focus. We have Basingstoke and Hull away next weekend, so it will be tough playing two games on the road.

“But we see it as a weekend where we can certainly pick up points, hopefully with a fuller bench to call on.”

Hull Pirates’ player-coach Dominic Osman urged his players to “look in the mirror” after seeing their losing streak stretched to nine games at the weekend.

A 6-1 defeat at home to Manchester Phoenix was followed by an improved performance on the road at bottom club Bracknell, but it still wasn’t enough to prevent a 4-3 defeat.

It leaves Hull’s play-off hopes hanging by a thread, trailing eighth-placed Manchester by 16 points with just 10 games to play and a combination of unfavourable results this weekend will see Hull’s hopes of making the post-season finally extinguished.

“It’s not good enough from our hockey team at this point,” said Osman.

“We need to take a long step back and take a look in the mirror.

“We played really well away from our defensive zone, but in our defensive zone we were not aware. We worked hard, but we just gave up too many grade-A scoring chances.

“When you do that against any team in this league they’ll bury you.”

On Saturday, Hull were 6-0 down before Pasi Salonen grabbed a late consolation.

The following night, the Pirates were 3-2 ahead going into the final period thanks to goals from Jamie Chilcott, Sam Towner and Nathan Salem.

But the Bees levelled through Carl Thompson in the 54th minute and after Osman picked up a five-plus-game for spearing, Scott Spearing took advantage to score a powerplay winner at 58.18.