Sheffield Steelers 3-0 Edinburgh Capitals

Sheffield's Phil Hill still missing with a broken foot, new forward Ryan Finnerty (#10) makes his debut.

Jody Lehman recorded his first shut-out of the season on Boxing Day and tonight 3867 saw him record his 4th for Sheffield's first victory against Edinburgh this season at their 6th attempt. It was his 3rd clean sheet in the last week after beating Manchester 4-0 last Saturday and Hull 1-0 on Wednesday and Sheffield have now won their last 6 games all in regulation and have just one penalty shot defeat (in Edinburgh) in their last 8 games.

After a one-sided but scoreless opening period, debutant Ryan Finnerty deflected home Ian Manzano's shot from the left (27:09) on Sheffield's 5th powerplay of the night.

Mark Thomas carried the puck up the ice and picked out Jason Hewitt on the right for the British forward to hit a bullet shot for the second (42:47), and on yet another powerplay Scott Ricci scored at the back door (53:30) to round off a comprehensive victory.

Edinburgh were not helped by their 13 penalties and the score could have been far more had Stephen Murphy not played so well. In only the 5th minute he padded aside Dan Tessier's right wing shot, then blanked Jonathan Phillips follow-up at close range and then a further rebound from Shawn Maltby as the home side seemed certain to score.

On 15 minutes Finnerty fed the puck out from the left corner to Ricci but Murphy made a big stop. Two minutes later Finnerty was blanked at the right post and the puck rebounded to Phillips on the far side, but somehow Murphy got across his goal to keep the puck out.

And just before the end of the first period he denied Shaun Sutter's first-time shot from 10 feet as the Canadian looked to register his 30th goal of the season.

It hadn't been all Sheffield though, as Lou Dickenson was denied close in just 66 seconds in, and the same player forced a fine save after a breakaway down the left in the 14th minute. And Lehman scared a few home fans rushing way out of his goal in the 8th minute to stick-handle the puck off Martin Cingel.

Just 23 seconds into the middle period, Maltby deflected Rod Sarich's shot past Murphy but ref Andy Carson ruled it out as Maltby's stick was above the height of the goal.

Capitals came back and Peter Janik and Mathew Craig forced saves with Dan Tessier sitting a hooking penalty.

Finnerty's opener was followed by a rash of penalties but Murphy had little to trouble him except from distance.

Lehman blanked Andrej Rajcak at close-range and with 3 minutes left in the second a pinpoint cross-ice pass picked out Neil Hay on the left but Lehman made a big save.

Hewitt's goal spurred Edinburgh on and Lehman did well to turn aside Craig's stinging left wing shot. But 5 minutes later Murphy turned aside another fine shot from Sutter after Phillips passed from behind the net.

Dickenson and Pavel Kowalczyk both forced big saves as Capitals went in search of a goal but Sheffield held out comfortably. The confidence sweeping through the team is reflected in the stands with a real buzz returning to the Hallam FM Arena.