Sheffield Steelers 4-2 Basingstoke Bison

Sheffield missing Stevie Duncombe.

2305 saw Sheffield made hard work of this one and had Shawn Maltby not been ejected for catching Mark Dutiaume in the face following a face-off, the result might have been different. Edijs Brahmanis and Doug Sheppard put Bison ahead after Kent Simpson's powerplay opener, but Martin Masa levelled on Maltby's penalty and Simpson and Mike Peron made the game safe.

Sheffield laid siege to the Bison net in the opening period.

Jason Robinson found Mark Bernard's glove from the left wing and from the face-off Stefan Sjogren had a shot turned aside, as Jerry Galway took a high sticks penalty. Sheffield applied lots pf pressure but only Simpson and Mike Peron forced saves. Back at full strength, John Wheaton tested Lehman from a fine angle low on the left.

Kent Simpson's optimistic backhanded shot was easily turned aside by Bernard, but with Sheffield pushing hard Galway was back in the box for holding the stick. Peron's shot was blocked but fell kindly to Simpson low on the left and Bernard toppled over trapping the shot between his pads, but the puck stayed out. Then Shudra shot wide at the back post, but the forward recovered to find Simpson who made no mistake (8:34) from 10 feet.

But Bison simply went down the other end and Brahmanis fired home from the right (8:59). Two minutes later Doug Sheppard's shot from a similar position squeezed through Jody Lehman's pads but took enough of a deflection to pass wide of the far post.

Back came Sheffield with Mark Dutiaume, Martin Masa and Jonas Lennartsson testing Bernard with easy shots. But Peron's line had Bison scrambling in defence and as Bernard stopped Lennartsson's shot, Brett Larson headed for a holding penalty.

Greg Chambers took the full force of Shudra's shot to his helmet on the powerplay with Sarich and Peron forcing more conventional stops.

As the period drew to a close Maltby went across the front of the net but Lehman dived on the puck snuffing out the chance.

Bison caught Sheffield cold at the start of the second, Lehman padding Greg Chambers' shot straight to Sheppard who drilled the rebound home.

Bison continued to press and Ryan O'Keefe and Larson both forced saves before Bernard gloved Mark Thomas' left wing shot.

Soon after Paul Sample shot tamely at the keeper from close-in. 30 seconds later Mike Peron had no joy trying to force the puck in at the left post.

Sheppard hooked Masa and 39 seconds into the penalty Maltby went for 5+game for high sticks following a face-off to the right of the Bison net. Sheffield failed to get away a single shot in 81 seconds of 5-on-3, but Lennartsson and Jason Hewitt made Bernard work after Sheppard returned. Masa deflected in a Mike Peron shot from the top of the slot (34:58) to level.

Two minutes later Peron forced a good save. Sheffield continued to press after Bison got back to full strength, with Dutiaume screwing his shot wide from close in.

A Simpson shot pinged back off the left post, Thomas stepped up and Bernard could only pad the shot to Simpson close-in who made no mistake (38:16). Bernard was less than happy and slashed Simpson after the goal had been awarded to give Sheffield another powerplay.

The game fizzled out in the final period. Sheffield kept the shots coming but rarely threatened to score. 5 minutes in Simpson and then Dutiaume had chances close-in.

At the other end Lehman did well to turn aside Tony Redmond's right wing shot deflected en route by Greg Owen.

With 8 minutes left Jason Robinson pushed up the middle and attempted to lift the puck home but Bernard stacked the pads and made the save.

Brad Cruickshank spun to fire in from the right but his shot ran wide. Peron showed him how to finish, muscling past his marker to reach Masa's long pass and scream a shot into the far top corner from the right wing (55:27).

Bison called a timeout with 72 seconds remaining, but didn't test Lehman.