Sheffield Steeldogs back to winning ways after Jason Hewitt hat-trick

Coach Greg Wood’s team were left smarting after a 5-0 home defeat at the hands of Sean Easton’s team on Friday but were able to post the perfect response within 48 hours.

The win – courtesy of a Jason Hewitt hat-trick and a Lee Bonner power play marker – ensures the Steeldogs, still without top line pair James Spurr and Matt Bissonnette, remain in touch with the top three, all of who picked up points at the weekend.

And with fifth-placed Leeds Knights suffering back-to-back defeats against Milton Keynes Lightning and Swindon Wildcats, it leaves the South Yorkshire team five points ahead of their White Rose rivals.

The Steeldogs have a great opportunity to close the gap further on third-placed Swindon when the two teams meet in next weekend’s double-header, the first of which sees Wood’s team hit the road before playing host 24 hours later (4.30pm).

In Romford, Hewitt opened the scoring after just 30 seconds, although the hosts pulled level through Jake Sylvester at 10.05. Hewitt doubled his tally just over six minutes into the second period which is how it stayed until the 45th minute when Bonner struck with the Steeldogs on the man advantage following a slashing call on Lukas Sladkovsky.

As the Raiders pushed for an unlikely way back, Ethan James was pulled from their net, allowing Hewitt to complete his hat-trick with 16 seconds remaining.

Leeds had hoped to make up ground on the four teams above them, especially the Steeldogs, but found themselves frustrated on both nights.

Wildcats’ player-coach Aaron Nell, was the reason behind their misery on Saturday, scoring all four goals - the last an empty-netter - as his team ran out 4-1 winners at the Link Centre.

Leeds were 2-0 ahead at home to the Lightning on Sunday through Cole Shudra’s 19th-minute opener and rocklet just after the halfway mark. But a short-handed breakaway effort from Sean Norris gave Lewis Clifford’s team hope four minutes before the break, after which they dominated the opening minutes to open up a 4-2 lead through strikes from Bobby Chamberlain, Leigh Jamieson and Liam Stewart.

A second from Brown at 49.43 made it a one-goal game again, but, try as they might, they couldn;t find their way past Matthew Smital again, Jamieson finishing the hosts off with a late empty-net strike.