Autocraft Telford Tigers made the trip up to Yorkshire to take on the Steeldogs on Saturday.
Telford had finally broken their recent losing run with a hard fought victory over Milton Keynes last weekend and were looking to build on that last performance. Tigers remained without Adam Harding through suspension and Edgars Landsbergs was also unavailable.
Tigers fell behind early in the game, with just four minutes on the clock. Elmeri Hallfors took advantage of a pass from behind the goal to score from close range. Four minutes later the lead was doubled when Walker Sommer was the beneficiary of some defensive indecision to score a second goal for the hosts.
Tigers hit back late in the period when Eric Henderson sent a pass across the goal to Vladimir Luka who shot into the bottom corner of the net to get Telford on the scoreboard.
With the game finely poised at the start of the second period, Telford fell apart and conceded four consecutive goals. Nathan Ripley skated through the defence unopposed and beat Brad Day for Sheffield’s third goal. Then Brady Doxey shot from the right circle in off the bar for Sheffield’s fourth goal. Doxey added his second goal shortly after and then Sommer broke away to cooly finish past Day to give Sheffield a 6-1 lead midway through the game.
After the sixth goal, Matty Bloor replaced Day in the Telford goal.
Tigers fought back with two quick goals of their own. Devon Skoleski scored on the power play with a wrist shot from the right circle and was closely followed by a goal from Rhodes Mitchell-King who hit a shot from the top of the left circle to give Tigers hopes of a comeback.
Ripley then scored his second goal of the the game to add a seventh goal for Sheffield. Tigers headed into the break at the end the second period, 7-3 behind.
A minute into the third period, Telford had a fourth goal with Henderson scoring from close range.
Sheffield hit back once again with a goal from Sam Tremblay and scored a ninth on the night with Sommer completing his hat trick with a shot from the slot, beating Bloor low down. Straight from the restart, Sheffield hit a tenth goal with Tremblay scoring his second of the game to add to Tigers’ misery.
Telford managed to add a little bit of respectability to the score line with late goals from Luka and Henderson but that couldn’t disguise a poor performance and a game the team will want to move on from quickly.
Final Score: Sheffield Steeldogs 10 Autocraft Telford Tigers 6.
Scorers: Vladimir Luka (2), Eric Henderson (2), Rhodes Mitchell-King and Devon Skoleski.
Man of the match: Rhodes Mitchell-King.
After the game Head Coach Tom Watkins, commented, “We got behind early on after we gave them two gifts for a two goal start, then started the second very poorly to concede quickly again, all those goals came from individual errors or breakdowns in play we did not deal with. Sheffield have fed on our mistakes all night and were clinical with their finishing.
“If you score six goals on the road you would expect to get something from the game and the reality is we weren’t even close to doing that.”