Sheffield Steelers 4-2 London Racers

Steelers missing Ron Shudra, Racers missing Kalle Konsti.

For Sheffield fans this was the night after the night before, following Sheffield's 1-1 Challenge Cup Final first leg game against keen rivals Nottingham Panthers, and just 2567 turned up to see Racers' spirited performance.

Both teams iced their British back-up goalies throughout, with plenty of ice time for Sheffield's local players.

Fittingly the Man of the Match awards for both sides went to British players : London's Matt Van Der Velden played well in goal whilst Sheffield's Gavin Farrand opened his goal scoring account.

There was little Van Der Velden could do when Marc LeFebvre popped up at the back post to roof the opening goal (4:33). Four minutes on, Warren Tait forced two good saves at Lawrence's right post. Player coach Jason Robinson forced another save on 31 seconds of 5-on-3.

Darling kept the Racers' goalie busy late in the period before McKinnon's rebound fell obligingly to Musil, but the Czech put his effort wide with the goal begging 25 seconds before the first interval.

A sweeping passing move ended with Anderson rounding the goalie to double the lead (21:05), with Van Der Velden doing well to blank DeWaele close-in 9 minutes later.

Racers' forwards never gave up the chase for goals and the visitors levelled the game after first Burkitt forced the puck home at the left post (33:39), then Filip netted through a crowded zone (38:24). Lawrence got a piece of that one but not enough. Mark Dutiaume took just 22 seconds to restore the lead with a shot from the left wing (38:46).

Four minutes into the final period Anderson forced the puck home in a scramble but the goal was disallowed as the referee had already stopped play. Ten minutes later Lake pased from the right and Farrand swept the puck home with a crisp first-time shot (53:56) to seal the win.

Racers never gave up and Lawrence had to work to keep London at bay.

After the game Mike Blaisdell reckoned Christian Bronsard would probably start the next two games to stop him from getting rusty. He was also full of praise for defenceman Farrand, especially his defensive play.