Sheffield Steelers 3-1 Hull Stingrays

Sheffield missing Les Millie and Mike Peron (shoulder).

Sheffield dominated this game and in the end won comfortably, but they needed a 5-on-3 powerplay to make the game safe when Kevin Phillips and Vladimir Chenko took tripping penalties 57 seconds apart. Jeff Christian popped home a rebound (54:05) to earn Steelers their first win in four games.

After the game home coach Rob Stewart reckoned Sheffield couldn't afford another slip-up between now and the end of the season. But he thinks Mike Peron will be back next weekend as Steelers struggle to score goals.

Earlier, they peppered man of the match Ladilsav Kudrna's goal but he kept making the stops and his defence cleared the rebounds. But they almost threw it away when goalie Jayme Platt went walkabout behind his goal and the puck came out front for Jeff Glowa to fire into the unguarded net (37:22) whilst Gerad Adams sat an elbows minor.

3074 saw a very one-sided opening session. Hull came closest to breaking the deadlock after Jeff Christian took a tripping penalty. Dru Burgess chased down the right wing and his bullet strike pinged off the bar 90 seconds before the interval.

The middle session started in similar fashion, but Hull's Slava Koulikov forced Platt to make two saves firing in from the left then collecting his own rebound to cycle round to the right wing.

After 32 minutes Paul Sample seemed certain to score but Kudrna poked the puck off his toes, losing his stick in the process. But Sample was soon on the scoreboard, getting away up the right wing and firing through the goalie's legs (34:56). A minute later Dave Cousineau's shot from the right point was turned aside and in the scuffle for the puck Geard Adams took his elbows penalty. Then Platt went AWOL and Glowa stunned everyone but the large cohort of Stingrays fans with the equaliser (37:22).

In the final second of the period Jeff Christian whipped the puck into the net following another scramble for a rebound, but was penalised for slashing.

Three minutes into the final session another rebound was lashed into the net by Adams, but his stick was above the height of the crossbar and the effort was disallowed.

Hull again began to test Platt and the home fans were getting restless. But Erik Anderson won a face-off on the left and Dion Darling fired home past an unsighted goalie (48:27).

Sheffield had plenty more chances to extend the lead, before first Phillips then Chernenko took Hull's only penalties of the night to give Sheffield that two man advantage. Anderson found Adams and, although Kudrna made the save, Christian netted from point-blank range.