The Bees ran into an in-form Steeldogs side, who killed the game off clinically in the third period.

Peter Jasik dressed for warm up and it was good to see Tom Annetts return to the line up, having recovered from concussion. Lewis Turner also came back, but Brad Watchorn and Carl Graham were unavailable.

The Bees were chasing the game with only 1:13 gone, when Pavel Gomeniuk fired home from the left point. Things got worse for the Bees shortly afterwards, when Lukas Smital was forced to leave the game with an upper body injury.

In spite of the setbacks, the Bees finished the period strongly, but found Steeldogs goalie Ben Bowns to be his usual resilient self.

Janis Ozolins made it 2-0 at 23:10 and then at 30:17 an Andre Payette dump-in from the neutral zone bounced out of Carl Ambler's glove, looped over his head and frustratingly dropped into the net.

The Bees again tried to rally, Bowns making two fantastic saves on efforts by Martin Masa but his resistance was finally broken at 38:02 when Alex Barker turned home a Michael Bowman pass at the back post. Shaun Thompson picked up the second assist on this Powerplay marker.

Ozolins virtually killed off any comeback chances just over two minutes into the third period, with a fantastic individual goal, cutting inside two Bees defencemen before lifting the puck over Ambler's glove hand into the roof of the net. The Steeldogs dominated the third period, out-shooting the Bees by 16 to 6 and adding two more goals to round off a convincing win.

Michael Bowman picked up the Bees man of the match award and the patched-up team will be hoping for a far better performance in Sunday's big game at home to Swindon.