Sheffield Steelers 6-1 Edinburgh Capitals

Sheffield missing Stevie Duncombe and Warren Tait with Kent Simpson returning to the side.

3724 saw Sheffield coast to a comfortable win after the sides exchanged early goals through Rod Sarich and Peter Konder. Mark Dutiaume and Jason Robinson bagged two goals each with Martin Masa also finding the net. Halfway through Masa was ejected for unpsortsmanlike conduct.

Dutiaume broke into the Edinburgh end, skating right finding Rod Sarich arrving late and he netted at close-range (1:46). But almost immediately Simon Butterworth was penalised for hooking and Jim Vickers tested Jody Lehman. Konder fared better slamming home the puck at the back door (2:20).

Paul Sample soon found himself sitting another hooking penalty but Lehman had no saves to make. Capitals were the ones creating chances, however, Dino Bauba forcing two saves from distance either side of Konder's speculative left wing shot.

12 minutes in Bauba again shot from distance at the unsighted Lehman, the puck ballooning off the goalie's stick and he did well to catch it before Capitals could pounce.

But then came 37 seconds that changed the game. First of all Dutiaume broke through down the left and with Sample arriving inside, his low hard shot deflected off Capital's Tony Hand past a helpless Martin Kucera (12:48). If that goal had a touch of luck about it, the next was poetry in motion as Ron Shudra and Mike Peron combined to fire a hard low pass to Masa on the doorstep and he deflected the puck home high (13:25).

Mike Sandbeck got in behind the home defence and his shot cannoned back off Lehman's left post. Two minutes later Peron robbed Hand behind the Edinburgh net and set up Dutiuame but his marker blocked the shot.

A goalless middle period saw a rash of penalties to both sides. On 32 minutes Masa lost his rag at the ref earning himself an unsportsmanlike misconduct penalty. But he contiuned to berate the ref and Hanson had little choice but to throw him out.

Neither side created any good chances as both sides were restricted to shots from the edge of the zone.

With Fredrick Oduya and then Ron Shudra taking penalties 19 seconds apart, the sides skated 4-on-4. Kent Simpson forced a good save from Kucera. Capitals cleared their end but a sweeping move up the ice saw Dutiaume hit a screamer through Kucera's pads (44:27) to kill any hopes of an Edinburgh comeback.

Sheffield were well on top now with only the occassional Capitals attack. Another free-wheeling move by the home side saw Jason Robinson arrive down the centre in acres of space. He carried the puck in close before wristing home to Kucera's right (49:50).

Three minutes later Lehman did well to turn aside a fierce shot from Hand following a face-off on Capitals' left flank. But Bauba took another penalty and Edinburgh's momentum was lost.

With Jason Hewitt sitting a hooking penalty, Rod Sarich popped up in front of goal but backhanded his effort wide. The chance appeared to have gone but Sarich returned the puck inside and Robinson repeated his earlier goal to round off the scoring (55:13).

Capitals didn't give up though, and Keisman forced another save. Then Neil Hay got down the left and passed across to Bauba who shot first time but Lehman had pushed up to narrow the angle and padded the effort aside.