Apart from the first 15 minutes and a ten minute spell in the third period they rarely looked in control of a game in which their poor defensive play cost them at least three goals.

However Lightning got off to a great start when Simon Butterworth was penalised for hooking within seconds of the face off. On the powerplay Adam Carr supplied Nick Poole to fire Lightning in front after 1min 3secs.

When Lightning found themselves a man short with penalties on Gary Clarke and Mikko Skinnari Sheffield were unable to make any impression but as the game went on they battled their way back and levelled the tallies during a second penalty on Clarke for interference a couple of minutes after Toni Alasaarela had an effort disallowed for kicking the puck in.

Stephen Wallace and Rob Dowd broke away with Wallace blasting the puck high into the net at 16mins 34secs.

Twenty seconds later Matt Towalski beat goalie Pasi Raitenen but his 'goal' was disallowed as he was in the goal crease.

Scimitars edged in front short-handed with Patrik Moberg sitting out a hooking call. Ron Shudra found Dowd completely unmarked in front of goal to score at 18mins 29secs.

Things got worse for Lightning straight after the break as Moberg set up Peter Slamiar for a fierce shot to beat goalie Barry Hollyhead on 21mins 19secs.

The hosts were still reeling from that goal when Robert Farmer had a shot washed out out a minute or so later – again because it was kicked in the net. But Scimitars made no mistake on 23mins 8secs as Dowd was again unmarked when he received Wallace's pass to make it 4-1.

A time out was called by Lightning but it failed to stop Scimitars adding a fifth goal through Butterworth at 24mins 40secs while on a powerplay.

It was not until early in the third period that Lightning were able to give home fans some hope with two goals within the space of 22 seconds.

Alasaarela picked his spot in the roof of the net from the right hand side of goal at 43mins 59secs before Skinnari followed up to score after Alasaarela's shot was blocked by Raitenen at 44mins 21secs.

From then on Lightning were unable to make any further inroads as Sheffield held firm to win.

The following night there was a goals shoot out at Ryde when Lightning beat Wightlink Raiders 10-5 – Alasaarela supplying Clarke for the first goal at 3mins 6secs. New Raiders signing Danny Hughes equalised in the sixth minute but Skinnari put the visitors back in front at 11mins 45secs for a 2-1 lead at the first break.

Lightning quickly established a 4-1 lead by the 27th minute as Poole and Alasaarela (short-handed) found the net. Raiders then staged a mini fightback as Nicky Watt and Robert Franc scored to make it 4-3 by the 34th minute.

Skinnari increased the gap to 5-3 with a powerplay goal at 37mins 17secs with Franc getting one back for Raiders before the second break.

The third period was almost all one way traffic with Lightning hitting the net no less than five times – the first coming from a powerplay goal by Clarke after 43mins 14secs. Raiders then suffered another penalty as ex-Lightning man Richard Wojciak was called for holding and that gave Alasaarela the chance to make it 7-4 after 43mins 33secs.

Poole put the game well beyond Raiders' reach at 51mins 41secs with Alasaarela and Clarke taking the score into double figures by 56mins 48secs.

With just over two minutes remaining Jason Coles got one back for Raiders but by then it was too late for the home side.