Sheffield Steelers 3-5 Coventry Blaze

3510 saw 60 minutes of penalties called in the opening period. Blaze took full advantage - helped by some rank bad luck for the home side - to post a 3-0 lead and never looked back. Hill's deflection and Clouthier's bullet shot reduced the arrears to 1, but failure to pick up players at the back post saw the game slip away from the home side. Steelers' Brett Clouthier and Blaze's Ashley Tait and Sylvain Cloutier all bagged a brace.

Just 12 seconds in and Blaze's Cloutier and Steelers' Tessier picked up misconducts for niggles off the puck. Maltby followed 14 seconds later but Steelers didn't allow Blaze a shot on Jody Lehman. Lehman's slashing penalty gave a brief spell of 5-on-3 with Dan Carlson and Tom Watkins finding their range.

The penalties continued to flow and with the sides skating 4-on-4, Ashley Tait broke away up the left wing and fired home off the far post from the blue line (7:16).

Still the penalties kept coming and when Regan Darby took a tripping penalty at the halfway mark, his penalty had to be stacked because Jason Hewitt and Jonathon Phillips were still sitting theirs!

Coventry helped themselves to a powerplay second after a fine passing move move was finished from low on Blaze's left wing by Tait (10:56) and just 15 seconds later Mark Thomas racked up more penalty minutes for the home side for charging.

That put Blaze 5-on-3 and Danny Stewart fired in from the left whilst Reid Simonton found Dan Carlson at Lehman's left post but the goalie made the save. Bad luck gifted Coventry a third as Scott Ricci received a freak cut from a skate and had to head to the bench. Cloutier passed into the empty space and Carlson returned the puck across the goal for Adam Calder to lift home at the back door (12:09).

Lehman made a good stop after Carlson went round the back and spun to fire a bullet from an acute angle, before Steelers at last began to create some chances of their own. Shaun Sutter got on the end of Rod Sarich's pass to the back post but Trevor Koenig shut the door. Koenig made a fine catch soon after to deny Shawn Maltby's shot on the turn, but Stewart rang the right post and Barrie Moore was denied at point-blank range as Blaze kept the pressure up.

With the sides noticeably more circumspect in the challenges, Coventry had the better of the early chances in the middle period, with Moore ripping a shot from the left into Lehman's face mask.

But Sheffield began to get back in the game, Clouthier (Sheff) getting in front to deflect a shot just over the bar. Carlson and Sarich both tested the goalies, before Barrie Moore rattled the near post from the left, reacting quickest after his initial pass was blocked.

Sheffield got themselves back in the game Jason Hewitt's shot from low on the left rebounded to Mark Thomas at the top of the slot and Phil Hill deflected the defenceman's shot home (26:10).

30 seconds later a piece of plexi popped out. After a 10 minute delay, Blaze came close to extending their lead. A pass across the goal found Rumun Ndur beyond the back post and although lehman made the save, there was a frantic scramble to clear the loose puck.

Clouthier halved the deficit from the left wing after Tessier wrestled the puck free and passed inside (31:09) and the home crowd rediscovered their belief.

Martin fired the puck out for a delay of game penalty, but Sheffield were unable to test Koenig and when Darby took a high sticks call, the visitors piled on the pressure. Stewart's bullet from the left hit Lehman's helmet. An almighty scramble at the Steelers' left post as the penalty was ending saw the puck break to Samy Nasreddine and his shot at the unguarded net was intercepted by Ian Manzano. The relief was short-lived however, as within 20 seconds Tait's right wing shot rebounded to an umarked Cloutier on the left who made no mistake (34:48).

Blaze were clearly on top against a tiring home side and Moore again reacted first to his intercepted pass, but Lehman kept the puck out.

With James Pease upending Hewitt late in the period, the home side piled on the pressure. Ben Gustavson's shot was blocked as was Tessier's, but Darby's blast from distance was redirected by Clouthier 10 seconds before the buzzer (39:50).

Any hope of a comeback was killed 30 seconds into the final period, Cloutier left all alone at Lehman's right post and Martin's pinpoint pass was duly rammed home upstairs (40:30).

Blaze dominated the next 5 minutes but Tessier lead Sheffield's response. When Simonton broke Clouthier's stick Koenig made 3 saves, before making the save of the game. The puck found Jonathon Phillips on the left wing and his rocket shot across the goalie looked a certain goal but the Blaze keeper proved otherwise.

With 5 minutes left Phil Hill took a 2+2+10 for attempted spearing and that was that for any chance of a comeback, despite Steelers lifting Lehman for the final 46 seconds.

Indeed Simonton broke down the right to fire in a rocket shot but he could only find Jody's mask instead of the net.