Frustration for Sheffield Steelers as they fail to build on comeback victory

It all started so promisingly for Tom Barrasso’s side when, at the fifth time of asking this season, they finally got the better of bogey team Guildford Flames.

But they were unable to build on that positive 24 hours later when they fell 6-3 on the road at the hands of Glasgow Clan.

Everything seemed to be going rather smoothly for the visitors in Scotland until they shipped three goals in as many minutes either side of the first period break.

Craig Peacock was first on the board for the Clan when he fired past Matt Climie at 18.02, the lead being doubled by Rasmus Bjerrum 32 seconds later before a third came from the stick of Brendan Connolly on a power play just over a minute into the second period.

Robert Dowd got the Steelers on the board three minutes later but, Matt Beca restored the three-goal cushion at 28.12 before making it 5-1 early in the third.

Goals within 43 seconds of each other from Jordan Owens and Ben O’Connor gave the Steelers faint hopes of a comeback, but their chances were dashed at 56.24 by a second from Connolly.

Saturday’s win over Guildford was done the hard way.

Going 2-0 behind inside the first 10 minutes it looked as if Barrasso’s team were going to once again come off second-best, having already suffered four defeats in five games against Paul Dixon’s team – the other being a 4-4 draw in the first leg of their Challenge Cup quarter-final.

But, with just 24 seconds remaining at Sheffield Arnea, Josh Pitt was in the right place at the right time to seal a dramatic win.

Guildford – who knocked the Steelers out of the Challenge Cup 9-8 on aggregate three nights earlier – silenced the home crowd when taking the lead through Jesse Craige at 5.17, their advantage doubling via Brett Ferguson less than two minutes later.

The Steelers got themselves back in the game just after the halfway mark through John Armstrong and their persistence paid off in the 53rd minute when Josh McFadden levelled.

The game then looked to be heading for overtime until Evan McGrath’s inch-perfect feed found Pitt to slot home for a thrilling 3-2 victory.