A LATE double-salvo from the Sheffield Steeldogs saw off the Swindon Wildcats in south Yorkshire this evening.

A tense and tight clash exploded into life at the halfway point and after Aaron Nell’s side had battled back to get back on level terms, two quickfire Sheffield goals late in the day proved their undoing and ensured that the Wildcats would head back to Wiltshire with nothing to show for their efforts.

Dalibor Sedlar pulled off two solid stops to keep out Tomasz Malasinski’s effort and Stevie Whitfield’s follow-up and the Steeldogs netminder also had to be at his best to keep out Jonas Hoog after he was smartly picked out by a combination of Nell and Malasinski.

Despite a frenetic tempo, the two teams couldn’t be separated as the opening period wore on, with Carlo Finucci threatening at one end before Neil Liddiard was forced to put his body on the line to put in a vital block after Lyle had saved from Arnoldas Bosas.

Shortly before the first break of the evening, Nell put Toms Rutkis one-on-one with an opponent and the youngster showed off some superb skill to wriggle clear but he shot narrowly wide as the stalemate continued.

Clear-cut chances continued to come at a premium in the opening throes of the second period but eventually, an opening fell Sheffield’s way and they came within a whisker of snatching the lead.

Bosas gained possession in the Wildcats zone and strode forward nonchalantly before firing at the target, with his strike beating Lyle but pinging off the frame of the goal to ensure that parity remained.

But just before the halfway point of the period, Cats stole a march with the proverbial classic counter-attack.

Moments after Stanislav Lascek had stung the pads of Lyle at one end, the visitors charged forward, with Hoog squaring across the face of goal for a stretching Nell to tuck away the opening goal of the evening at the far post.

But the Steeldogs responded well to going a goal down and were soon back on level terms as the puck broke to Tom Squires following a period of sustained pressure, allowing him to gleefully lash home the equaliser.

A low strike from Corey McEwen came close to beating Sedlar at his near post as the Wildcats went looking to regain the advantage whilst Liam Charnock tested the reflexes of Lyle at the other end of the rink.

But Cats were to head into the third period with work to do as with less than two minutes to go in the second, Sheffield won possession back, Tim Smith’s pass forward took out the whole Swindon team, and Bosas was able to skate clear before confidently dispatching the puck past Lyle to make it 2-1.

As Nell’s men went looking to hit back in the third period, skipper Kostal came close to levelling matters as his instinctive snapshot cannoned off the angle of bar and post whilst Lyle had to get across the goalline to prevent Bosas from finishing off a flowing Steeldogs counter-attack.

The pace noticeably quickened as the Wildcats went on the offensive and a barrage of pressure resulted in an equaliser, with Sam Bullas knocking the puck into the danger zone from the left of the Sheffield goal to allow Finucci to blast into the roof of the net from close range to make it 2-2.

Cats youngster Owen Griffiths came agonisingly close to handing Swindon the initiative once again as he was charged down by Sedlar, only to see the puck slide onto the far post, but moments later, the Steeldogs were celebrating as Cole Shudra somehow snuck an effort past Lyle.

Then, the Wildcats’ goose was cooked as Squires fired a shot into the danger zone and the puck took a wicked deflection off Matt Selby before nestling in the net to make it 4-2 but with 2:04 remaining on the clock, Hoog hammered a rocked past Sedlar to reduce the deficit back to a single goal.

But time ran out as the dogs got the better of the cats.