Frustration for Sheffield Steeldogs at Leeds Chiefs but Hull Pirates rediscover winning touch

Having gone into Saturday night’s encounter with Peterborough Phantoms on the back of a five-game winning run, the Steeldogs came off second-best in a 4-1 defeat on home ice.

Then, on Sunday night at Elland Road, Leeds Chiefs ultimately prevailed with a thrilling 5-4 overtime win, leaving Morgan’s team back down to seventh in the standings after Milton Keynes Lightning leapfrogged them with their 8-5 win over Hull Pirates on Saturday.

The Steeldogs had led 2-0 in Leeds only to then find themselves 4-2 down with just over five minutes remaining after the hosts rallied in the third period.

And while player-coach Morgan was pleased with his team’s ability to claw back the deficit with two late strikes and earn themselves a point, their collective efforts over the weekend as a whole struggled to impress him.

“I don’t think we were at it tonight (Sunday) and that kind of followed on from Saturday night’s performance if I’m honest,” said Morgan. “We simply got outworked by a very strong Peterborough side. We weren’t at the races at all, we didn’t apply ourselves, we got out-fought, out-battled and simply weren’t good enough.

“And then against Leeds, we battled in five-minute stints at a time, but we were quite fortunate to be up for the vast majority of the game like we were. It showed a bit of character go come back from two goals down with a couple of minutes to go but, overall, it was disappointing.”

Steeldogs had got themselves 2-0 ahead through James Spurr’s eighth-minute power play opener with Reece Cochrane adding a second on the man advantage at 24.43.

But Patrik Valcak gave the hosts hope at 32.29 before Joe Coulter’s 47th-minute piledriver got them back on level terms.

Two goals in 73 seconds - the first from Valcak, the second from Caly Robertson - looked to be enough for the Chiefs, but a third power play goal of the night, this time from Nathan Salem was followed in the last two minutes by a second strike from the same player.

Overtime arrived, but it was the Chiefs who prevailed through Valcak’s hat-trick strike just under two minutes in, going some way to compensating for the bottom club’s 2-0 defeat at Basingstoke on Saturday.

The Steeldogs were 3-0 down on Saturday night through strikes from Peterborough’s Martins Susters (2) and Will Weldon before they got on the board, Spurr reducing the deficit just before the halfway mark.

But Thomas Norton put paid to any hopes of a comeback from the hosts when he made it 4-1 at 46.40.

Hull Pirates snapped a four-game losing streak that had been extended on Saturday by an 8-5 defeat at Milton Keynes when they hit back to beat leaders Telford Tigers 7-5 24 hours later.

Former Hull Stingrays’ forward Jason Silverthorn scored four times for the visitors, opening the scoring with just 1.42 on the clock before Matt Bissonnette levelled in the seventh minute.

The Pirates went ahead through Bobby Chamberlain at 13.21, although the Tigers hit back early in the second period through Silverthorn.

A Jason Hewitt Power play marker at 29.21 was followed 80 seconds later by a Matty Davies strike as the hosts took control, extending their advantage further early in the third through a second Davies goal.

After Richard Plant made it a two-goal game again shortly after, Bissonette’s second was quickly cancelled out by Silverthorn’s hat-trick strike to leave the game tantalisingly poised at 6-4 to the hosts with just over eight minutes remaining.

Crucially, Chris Wilcox was next to strike at 53.50 and, even though Silverthorn quickly added to his personal haul, Hull saw the game out for a welcome win.

On Saturday, Hewitt (2), Davies, Chamberlain and James Archer found the net, but a six-point night for Liam Stewart - including four goals - saw the Lightning prevail.