Coach Greg Wood happy to see Sheffield Steeldogs pass test posed by Raiders IHC in NIHL National Spring Cup

Sheffield Steeldogs celebrate one of their seven goals against Raiders IHC at Ice Sheffield. Picture courtesy of Steeldogs' Media.

For 35 minutes, the Steeldogs’ return to action in the behind-closed-doors NIHL National tournament saw them struggle to impose themselves against a lively Raiders IHC side who matched them blow for blow.

Ahead 2-1, thanks to goals from Ben Lake and Jason Hewitt either side of a reply from Erik Piatak - which all came in a frantic start to the second period - it wasn’t until the last five minutes of the middle section that the hosts were able to establish some semblance of control.

Sheffield Steeldogs 7 Raiders IHC 3 - Steeldogs maintain winning momentum in NIH...

Less than three minutes later Nathan Salem made it 4-1, the lead extended six minutes into the third when good work by captain Lewis Bell enabled Charlie Thompson to fire home when left all alone in front.

However, the Raiders - as they had done all night - refused to lie down, briefly threatening a comeback with strikes from Callum Burnett and Aaron Connolly, before the Steeldogs deservedly prevailed by closing out the win with further strikes from Alex Graham and Liam Kirk.

For head coach Wood, it was no more than his team deserved, but he knows his team faces another tough test when the two sides meet again in Romford on Sunday evening.

“They made it really hard or us,” said Wood. “They really slowed the game down and slowed any momentum when they needed to and they made us do things we wouldn’t normally do. But that is credit to them, they are a good skating team.

Sheffield Steeldogs' Charlie Thompson fires home past back-up netminder Bradley Windebank at Ice Sheffield to make it 5-1.Picture courtesy of Steeldogs Media.

“I’ve said all week that what they maybe lack in a bit of quality they make up for in energy and intensity. And we struggled to break them down but, once we established a good forecheck and got our offensive play going, our quality eventually shone through.”

Wood had been expecting Raiders to come to Ice Sheffield employing the same physical approach they had adopted in Telford the previous weekend and admits it took his players time to adjust what was in front of them.

“To be honest, I think we were a bit shell-shocked at how passive they were,” added Wood. “We’d worked all week on them coming and being aggressive like they were at Telford and it’s kind of a compliment I’d say that they saw that they probably couldn’t do that against us.

It took us a little while to adjust, but when we did I thought we did a pretty good job of exploiting that.

TESTING NIGHT: Greg Wood was plkeased to see his Sheffield Steeldogs' team overcome the challenges thrown up by Raiders IHC. Picture courtesy of Peter Best.

“This game obviously helps us prepare for the game down there. They’ve got a few additional guys that we weren’t sure about, we know how they set up, their strengths and weaknesses - we’ve got a clear view of them now.

“Speaking to the guys afterwards, I think we all know what is needed down there.”