HULL SEAHAWKS and Sheffield Steeldogs warmed up for Sunday night’s first derby meeting of the NIHL National season in East Yorkshire by each posting a 4-1 win on Saturday.
The Seahawks travelled to Solway – who had lost 5-0 at Leeds Knights the previous night – and dominated the majority of the game, out-shooting their Scottish hosts by almost 2-1.
They established a 2-0 lead inside the first half hour of the game, too, Cody Monds firing his eighth goal of the season at 17.43 before fellow summer signing Patrick Brown doubled the lead in the 26th minute.
Former Leeds’ centre Matt Haywood halved the deficit with a power play strike at 44.58 but Brown responded with his second of the night six minutes later.
It was left to Owen Bruton to make the points safe with an empty-net strike with just 52 seconds remaining.
The Steeldogs bounced back from a pair of overtime defeats to Romford Raiders with a dominant win over a Peterborough Phantoms team who had replaced Ashley Tait with Nathan Pollard as head coach earlier in the week.
Dante Salituro was the star of the show for the home team, blasting a hat-trick which started with the opening goal in the sixth minute.
Steeldogs coach Slava Koulikov’s former team responded within three minutes through Henry Newell and it remained tied until the first intermission.
Salituro doubled his tally in the 26th minute on the power play but although they created far more goalscoring opportunities than the visitors, the Steeldogs couldn’t put further distance between themselves and the Phantoms until the 54th minute.
That signalled a hat-trick celebration for Salituro before Walker Sommer made it a three-point night for himself with a power play marker just 42 seconds later at 54.03.