Fresh winning streak sought by Sheffield Steeldogs as Hull Pirates look to close gap on Manchester Phoenix

Greg Wood’s team followed up a wonderful 2-1 win at leaders Basingstoke Bison with a 4-3 win at home to Swindon Wildcats.

The Ice Sheffield triumph – courtesy of goals from Tom Squires (2), Arnoldas Bosas and Cole Shudra – saw the Steeldogs close the gap on sixth-placed Swindon to four points with a game still in hand.

They can complete a clean sweep of victories at Milton Keynes during the regular season having won on their two previous visits, following up a 5-4 win in September with a 4-3 triumph in November.

Sunday presents an opportunity for Sheffield to turn up the pressure on other teams above them when they host fourth-placed Guildford Flames.

The Flames welcome Manchester Phoenix before making the trip north and are just five points ahead of the Steeldogs, who have two games in hand.

Defenceman Ben Morgan believes the Steeldogs are finding the right combination in order to enhance their play-off hopes.

“We are playing a totally different style of hockey to what we used to do,” he said. “We’re playing basic, gritty hockey but at other times we’re a really fluent, skilful team. We hope we can put another win streak together like we did before Christmas.”

Buoyed by last week’s 5-1 win at home to third-placed Peterborough Phantoms, Hull Pirates will continue their bid to gatecrash the play-offs when they host leaders Basingstoke.

With 18 regular season games left, Dominic Osman’s team are currently seven points adrift of Manchester Phoenix, the team sitting in the final play-off spot.

The two meet in Manchester on Sunday night.