BRACKNELL Bees recorded one of their biggest wins in recent times when demolishing Raiders 11-4 at The Hive on Saturday, writes Dave Wright.
Five goals came in the final seven-and-a-half minutes of a remarkable game which saw Doug Sheppard's men rack up a total of 48 shots at goal. With 28 coming at the other end of the rink, there was plenty of action at both ends, making it a duel of non-stop excitement between two attack-minded sides.
Dominik Gabaj maintained his scorching form with a hat-trick and two assists, while the club's newest signing, teenager Callum Robertson, marked his debut with two goals and an assist, earning him the man-of-the-match award on his home debut.
Sheppard appears to have come up trumps with his three latest acquisitions as Josh Ealey-Newman also got on the scoresheet.
The trio have certainly added plenty of fire-power to his attacking options and if Bees can tighten up their defending, they will surely climb up the National Division standings from their current position of seventh.
They stung Raiders with two goals in the fifth minute, the first from James Galazzi and 21 seconds later from Luke Jackson with a long-range effort, but a power-play goal from Blahoslav Novak made it 2-1 going into the first break.
Aidan Doughty, Gabaj and two from Robertson took Bees' total to six in the middle period, with the Romford side managing to reply twice through Jake Sylvester and skipper Aaron Connolly.
The score remained at 6-3 until the 53rd minute when Gabaj netted his second of the game.
Bracknell then went goal crazy with Ealey-Newman, Zack Milton, Gabaj (2) and Josh Martin taking the total to 11, while Brandon Ayliffe managed to bag a fourth for the visitors.
Gabaj and Robertson, along with Will Stead, were also on target in Sunday's 4-3 defeat at Sheffield.
With less than two minutes remaining it looked as if Bees were on for a four-point weekend, having come from behind to lead 3-2, only for Lewis Bell to strike the equaliser with 75 seconds remaining.
Overtime failed to produce a winner and so the game went to penalties, where the only player to find the net was Steeldogs' Vladimir Luka.
Gabaj, who has now scored 10 goals in his first five appearances, was voted Bees' man-of-the-match, his third such award in five games.
Last weekend, the TSI World-sponsored side were without Joe Baird, who was suspended by the NIHL following a review into an incident in the previous week's match against Peterborough Phantoms.
After reviewing the video, the league deemed he committed a 'reckless' challenge which could have resulted in a serious injury to an opponent and suspended him for two games with five penalty points added to his record.
The experienced defender will return for this coming weekend's two away fixtures – at Telford on Saturday (7pm) and at Hull on Sunday (5.30pm).
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