Sheffield Steelers denied progression on final day of Continental Cup in Denmark

Having won their opening two games in Aalborg – following up Friday night’s 3-0 win against the hosts with a hard-fought 3-2 win against Olimp Riga on Saturday, the Steelers were well-placed to be one of the two teams to progress to January’s grand finale.

But they went down 4-0 to Belarus’s HK Gomel to leave them waiting on the result of the final game between Aalborg and Riga.

The Danish side promptly prevailed 7-2, meaning it was they and Gomel who progressed, while an injury-riddled Steelers headed home to South Yorkshire licking their wounds.

In NIHL National, Sheffield Steeldogs bounced back from last weekend’s loss to Peterborough Phantoms with two convincing wins, leaving them two points clear at the top of the standings.

Goals from Sam Towner, Jason Hewitt, James Spurr and Louie Newell saw them exact swift revenge on Peterborough when the two teams met again at Ice Sheffield on Saturday night.

Just under 24 hours later, Greg Wood’s players were taking the applause of the home fans again after racking up their 10th win of the regular season with a 4-1 triumph over Basingstoke Bison.

But they had to be patient as they came back to triumph after falling behind to a 23rd-minute opener from Bison’s Alex Roberts.

Hewitt got his team level with just 57 seconds remaining in the second period, but it wasn’t until the final five minutes that the game was ultimately decided.

Towner made it two goals in as many nights when he scored what proved to be the game-winning goal at 55.50 and, with Bison having pulled netminder Alex Mettam, Hewitt added his second with an empty-net strike inside the final two minutes, Spurr also doubling up for the weekend with 64 seconds left.

Leeds Knights ended their six-game losing streak in the league as a Brandon Whistle hat-trick led them to a 4-2 home win over Bees IHC on Saturday.

They looked well-placed to make it four-point weekend when ahead by the same scoreline going into the third at Peterborough last night.

But they ran into penalty trouble, allowing the Phantoms to score two goals on the power play and run out 6-4 winners.