FRIDAY
RAIDERS 4 BEES 5
Juha Lindgren scored the winning goal to confirm a first Spring Cup win for Bees, edging Raiders a nine-goal thriller in Romford.
Both teams were without a victory going into this one so it was interesting when Ivan Antonov put Bees ahead, only for Zach Sullivan to score a powerplay goal to level by the end of the first.
The visitors were three goals ahead in the second as Josh Smith and two more from Antonov to complete his hat-trick put them 4-1 ahead, Sullivan struck again on the PP to reduce the arrears.
Lindgren restored the three-goal in the final 10 minutes and despite Raiders pushing and finding the net through Callum Wells and Aaron Connolly, their efforts were in vain as Bees took full points in the 5-4 result.
Raiders ran Bees close on Friday, but Doug Sheppard’s men came out on top (PHOTO: John Scott)
SATURDAY
SWINDON WILDCATS 2 TELFORD TIGERS 9
Four points from Scott McKenzie and three each from Jonathan Weaver, Robert Lachowicz and Kieran Brown helped Telford Tigers to a bumper 9-2 win at Swindon Wildcats.
Tigers continued their unbeaten start to the Spring Cup by delivering a heavy scoreline to Swindon, who were back from their weekend off and were reminded how tough this competition is.
Tigers were three up in the opening nine minutes as Ross Venus, Brown and Finley Howells as they stormed ahead, followed by McKenzie’s first before Toms Rutkis pulled one back for the Wildcats.
Powerplay markers from Weaver and McKenzie kept the rout going and when Jack Watkins added a seventh after the half hour mark, Renny Marr was replaced in goal by Tyler Perre.
Swindon got another consolation back through Balint Pakodzi, but further powerplay finishes from Venus and Cole Shudra completed an impressive shift for Tom Watkins’ side.
Telford Tigers swept all four points from Swindon Wildcats (PHOTO: Kat Medcroft)
SHEFFIELD STEELDOGS 7 BEES 0
It was a case of anything Telford could do, Steeldogs could do better as they romped to a comfortable 7-0 win over the Bees to dampen their spirits from Friday’s game.
For Greg Wood’s side, it was the first shutout of the competition as they gave a pleasing performance to take another two points in the Spring Cup.
Ben O’Connor weighed in with four assists, his first helping Nathan Salem with the opening goal from the slot as the home side were one up after a minute and a half.
It set the tone as Jason Hewitt and Ben Lake added further markers to end the first with a three-goal lead.
James Galazzi was given a five plus game penalty for high sticks and it was the spell in the game that killed the Bees off as Steeldogs made the most of their advantage.
They didn’t let up as Salem and Alex Graham added goals four and five almost immediately followed by a second from Hewitt.
Graham got his second soon after and despite their best efforts, Bees couldn’t find a way past Jordan Lawday, who was brought into to replace the injured Dmitri Zimozdra and Miles Finney.
Scott McKenzie had a good weekend for Telford (PHOTO: Kat Medcroft)
SUNDAY
TELFORD TIGERS 7 SWINDON WILDCATS 2
Sunday’s rematch between Telford Tigers and Swindon Wildcats looked like a carbon copy of Saturday’s meeting, ultimately ending with Tigers taking a heavy win.
The chance for Swindon to redeem themselves after their disappointment 24 hours before never really came about as Tom Watkins, on the Telford bench, got the best birthday present possible.
Tigers were two up in the first period as Ross Venus and Jason Silverthorn put them ahead before the skipper added his second and Telford’s third early in the middle session.
Swindon pulled one back at the midway point through Ben Nethersell on the powerplay and five minutes into the third, Jordan Kelsall was on target to pull Swindon to within one.
However the game changed when David Clements restored the two-goal lead shorthanded for the home side and from there, they kicked on.
Kieran Brown and Scott McKenzie also added to the tally to put Telford out of sight before Austin Mitchell-King completed the rout to keep Tigers’ 100% record intact.
Jason Hewitt had a productive weekend, picking up 4+3 over Bees for Steeldogs (PHOTO: Podium Prints)
BEES 4 SHEFFIELD STEELDOGS 10
Liam Kirk starred again with another four-goal haul as Sheffield Steeldogs romped to their second win in two days over Bees.
The double-figure amount will have disappointment the home fans, who would have witnessed the 7-0 drubbing from the night before in Sheffield.
It started reasonably positively as Jason Hewitt’s opening goal for the visitors was cancelled out by Josh Martin on a delayed penalty.
The same thing happened again as Kirk’s first on the PP was equalised by Ciaran Long and while Hewitt added a go-ahead goal at the end of a a first period goalfest, it triggered another runaway scoreline.
Three goals in the space of 86 seconds effectively killed the Bees off as Alex Graham, Kirk’s second and one from Jonathan Phillips had the game at 6-2 before Graham increased the gap with another.
Two more came from Kirk to round off another excellent individual display followed by Jack Brammer to take the Steeldogs to a massive 10 goals.
