Sheffield Steeldogs end losing streak against Swindon Wildcats to edge nearer to Final Four Weekend
SHEFFIELD STEELDOGS finally got the better of Swindon Wildcats to edge closer to clinching a spot at the NIHL National Final Four Weekend in Coventry.
In all five regular season meetings against the 2025-26 league champions, the Steeldogs had come off second-best but, on Friday night at Ice Sheffield, they ended that losing streak in the most dramatic of circumstances, winning 5-4 after a shoot-out.
With less than 15 minutes to go, though, it looked like the visitors were going to rack up their sixth straight win of the season over the Steeldogs as they led 4-2.
But a 47th-minute strike from Walker Sommer – his second of the night – and a leveller from veteran defenceman Tim Smith ensured overtime was required.
When that couldn’t separate the two teams, the subsequent shoot-out required only one successful attempt, with Bair Gendunov finding the net while all three Wildcats players failed.
It leaves Slava Koulikov’s team on six points at the top of Group A ahead of a return meeting between the two teams in Swindon on Saturday night. Victory at the Link Centre would almost certainly assure the Steeldogs of making it to the SkyDome Arena for the semi-finals on April 18 .
It was Swindon who broke the deadlock inside four minutes when player-coach Aaron Nell beat Brady Parker, although it wasn’t long before the hosts were level through Nathan Ripley at 6.43.
A slashing call on Sommer in the 18th minute resulted in a penalty shot for the Wildcats which was dispatched by Logan vande Meerakker to restore their lead but, once again, the Steeldogs were soon back on level terms, when Sommer beat Renny Marr at 23.19.
Swindon then established greater superiority with two goals before the second intermission, first going ahead for a third time just before the halfway mark when Edgars Bebris scored against his former club and then doubling their lead through a second for vande Meerakker with 81 seconds of the period left.
But the Steeldogs came out with renewed purpose in the third, dragging themselves level through Sommer and Smith before top-scorer Gendunov – once again – applied the winning touch.