Bracknell Bees seal penalty shoot-out win against Hull Pirates

With the clock moving into single figures, they were trailing 6-5 and looked to be heading for their sixth defeat in succession.

But skipper Stuart Mogg fired home the equaliser with just eight seconds remaining to take the game into overtime.

The extra five minutes failed to produce another goal, so it all went down to penalties, which the Bees won to secure a much-needed 7-6 victory.

That early shock came through a double strike by the Pirates with goals from Jason Hewitt after just 43 seconds and at 3:11.

Bees worked hard to get themselves into the game and halved their deficit at 11:09 from James Galazzi, with Ryan Webb and Josh Martin providing the assists.

Hull restored their two-goal advantage through Jordan Fisher at 22:57, finding the net from close to 20 yards, and that led to a change between the posts, with Adam Goss giving way to Danny Milton.

But, more importantly, Bees found their form at the other end, with Ed Knaggs (24:34) and Harvey Stead (29:58) bringing the scores level at 3-3.

They were not helped when Knaggs and Aidan Doughty were both sin-binned for 10 minutes and Hull took advantage with skipper Jamie Chilcott scoring a fourth with another long-range effort.

Pirates also had a goal ruled out before Galazzi restored parity at 37:35. His second goal of the game was originally disallowed, only for the match officials to confer and reverse the decision, and a minute later Zack Milton put the home side ahead for the first time at 5-4.

Play continued to swing from end to end and the scores were back level when Tom Stubley netted the visitors' fifth goal at 55:02 and shortly afterwards Hewitt completed his hat-trick to make it 6-5 with another bullet shot from close to 20 yards.

The TSI World-sponsored Bees withdrew Danny Milton to go with six skaters and it paid off as Mogg drove home the equaliser at 59:52, with Martin recording his fifth assist of the game.

In the penalty shoot-out, Roman Malinik netted three times and Doughty once to give Bees a 4-3 advantage, leaving the final score 7-6.

Galazzi was voted his side's man-of-the-match.

Having released Czech Robin Kovar last week after signing him in July, Bees head coach Doug Sheppard has acquired the services of Dominik Gabaj, a 26-year-old Slovakian who will be playing in Britain for the first time.

His previous clubs include HK Ruzinov 99 Bratislava, American clubs Idaho Jr. Steelheads (now the Idaho IceCats) and Monroe Community College and, more recently, for Brest in France.

He is set to make his debut this coming weekend when eighth-placed Bees visit Basingstoke Bison, who are third, on Saturday (6.30pm) before hosting second-placed Swindon Wildcats on Sunday (5.30pm).