Sheffield Steelers 3-1 Belfast Giants

Sheffield without Shawn Maltby (hernia op) and Phil Hill (broken foot).

3320 saw Sheffield finally beat Belfast at the 6th attempt, but they needed all their recently found defensive resolve to do it as the visitors outshot the hosts 42-32 in front of a large and noisy following of Giants fans.

Hooking penalties lead to the opening 2 goals, Ryan Finnerty's bullet from the right wing (9:49) with JP Morin in the penalty box opened the scoring, and Shawn Skiehar deflected home Mark Dutiaume's shot (30:26) with Warren Tait off the ice.

At this stage Belfast were looking the more dangerous side, especially after Sheffield failed to make 88 seconds of 2 man advanatge tell late in the middle period.

Dan Tessier won the game, putting home the pieces after Mike Minard saved Rod Sarich's shot (48:25) and Regan Darby should have made the game safe shortly afterwards breaking away alone down the left but Minard made a huge stop from close range.

Belfast forced the puck in but only after the ref had whistled the game down and despite considerbale pressure Shaun Sutter was able to fire from his own end into the empty Giants net after Minard was withdrawn for the extra skater (59:46).

A rash of penalties in the opening 5 minutes failed to produce any quality chances, until Mark Thomas found himself sitting a holding penalty. Jody Lehman saved from Dutiaume, then kept out Skiehar's re-direction of Jason Ruff's shot. However just as the penalty ended a clever pass out from behind the net found Jeff Hutchins 8 feet out but he missed the puck. Soon after JP Morin hauled back Tessier for his hooking penalty. Giants cleared their end but Finnerty flew up the right wing to rifle home the opener across the goalie.

Belfast kept Lehman busy for the rest of the period but it was Jonathan Phillips who popped up on the doorstep to be blanked by Minard.

Sheffield had the early chances in the middle period, with Ian Manzano electing to ignore 2 team-mates and finding Minard's glove instead.

Nearly 5 minutes in Curtis Huppe blasted a shot wide when well placed. Giants then saw off Graham Walton's delay of game penalty without Minard being tested. When Tait found himself heading for the box you just knew Gianys wouldn't give Lehman such an easy time and sure enough they scored with their first shot. Jason Ruff was patience personified on the right, eventually teeing up a pass for Dutiaume to fire in and Skiehar deflected the shot inside the near post.

Curtis and Leigh Jamieson both had good chances but Lehman was in fine form.

Sutter forced a penalty, creating space for Tessier to shoot and Minard was saving from Tessier and Manzano on the powerplay. But back at even strength a cross-ice pass picked out Huppe arriving low on the left and Lehman had to be at his best to block the fierce shot.

The period ended with Skiehar and George Awada taking penalties 38 seconds apart. Seconds before the buzzer Sutter screwed a shot wide from close-in.

Tessier's hooking penalty early in the final session saw the home dfence working overtime to take out Giants shots, only Huppe forcing a save.

In the 46th minute Lehamn made a big pad save from Huppe which had the Giant shaking his head, then Phillips jinked inside and Minard did well to block his crisp shot.

The game was end-to-end, Hutchins unleashing a rocket from the left wing but Tessier found the net at the near post after Sarich's shot from the edge of the zone.

With 10 minutes left, and for the second successive night, Darby broke away up the left wing and went in close but like Mark Lee last night Mike Minard made the big save.

Giants kept working Lehman but didn't look like finding a way through and instead quick breaks saw Minard keeping them in the game, Darby again forcing the save this time after a right wing dash by Phillips.

At 53:30 Giants thought they had scored following a scramble around the home net, but Nigel Boniface had already blown to stop play.

Giants failed to get any quality chances in the remaining minutes, despite pulling Minard with a minute to go and calling a timeout with 35 seconds remaining.

The game was made safe when Sutter near his own net lobbed the puck over the Giants defencemen and the puck slid up the middle of the ice and into the empty net.