Sheffield Steelers 2-4 Edinburgh Capitals

After 2 scoreless periods Sheffield's short bench cost them this one as Edinburgh twice hit 2 goals in almost as many minutes. Player-coach Tony Hand got the first and last of those.

Sheffield without Mike Peron (should start skating next week), Kent Simpson (hand), Rod Sarich and Stefan Sjogren (both flu). Edinburgh without Iain Beattie.

Missing 4 of their 11 imports, Sheffield were always going to be up against it. They had the better of the opening period with the visitors starting to create the better chances from the halfway point onwards.

Steelers opened the scoring (44:22) following Dennis Maxwell's shot from the right. In the scramble that followed, Martin Kucera denied Warren Tait but Martin Masa found the net.

That only served to fire up the visitors. Twice Dino Bauba forced good saves from Jody Lehman. But Tony Hand hit the puck home from 12 feet after Sheffield failed to clear their zone (49:19).

Edinbugh scored with their next shot (51:31), Martin Cingel blasting in from the right.

Still the visitors pressed, Mike Sandbeck and Neil Stevenson-Moore forcing saves before Ron Shudra and Dennis Maxwell made Kucera work.

Stevenson-Moore extended the lead with the next shot, another right wing bullet (56:48) and Sheffield might have caved in. But they redoubled their efforts, Jason Robinson forcing a save before Dutiaume found the net from close-in (58:20) and Capitals called a time-out.

Sheffield lifted Lehman shortly after the restart but veteran Hand made finding the empty net look easy scoring from his own half (58:57). Sheffield kept plugging away but it was all too late.

The game started with Masa driving the net and that set the tone for the first period. When Sandbeck took a checking from behind penalty. Dutiaume and Mark Thomas forced good stops from Kucera. Just before the 10 minute mark Maxwell had a shot deflected out, his 4th shot in that opening spell that had failed to test the goalie.

Soon after, Bauba's screened shot was padded to Hand low on the right but Lehman made a second save.

In the 14th minute Maxwell released Warren Tait and he went in close, but Kucera shut the door.

Sheffield went back on the powerplay when Bauba took an interference penalty, but the advantage lasted just 28 seconds after Hand intercepted the puck on his own blue line and broke away, Shudra taking a holding penalty as he failed to out-race Hand.

And Hand might have opened the scoring from low on the left with seconds left on the Capitals powerplay, but Lehman wasn't to be beaten.

Sandbeck got away down the right at the start of the middle session and Lehman had to roll-over and lie on the puck to stop it squeezing through.

Thomas took a holding penalty but Capitals failed to test Lehman. A minute after returning to full strength Jonas Lennartsson blasted the best chance of the game wide of Kucera's left post. Another 2 minutes and a trademark mazey skate from Dutiaume from the right wing brought a pad save.

Hand, Cingel and Bauba started to work Lehman. Then Stevenson-Moore skated around the back of the net for a wrap-around attempt and another save.

Seconds later Maxwell forced a good glove save from the unsighted Kucera, but the momentum was swinging towards Capitals as the second interval approached.