Sheffield Steelers 4-3 Manchester Phoenix

Sheffield missing Phil Hill (broken foot), Shawn Maltby (hernia op), add Matt Towe. Manchester missing Ales Parez.

2947 saw Sheffield win this more comfortably than the scoreline suggests, but Johan Molin almost made them pay a heavy price for taking the middle session a little too casually. Twice he fired home across Jody Lehman from the right wing (35:24 and 37:52) but Phoenix were unable to exert any serious pressure on Lehman in the final period and Sheffield closed to within 1 point of second placed Belfast.

David Vychodil upended Ryan Finnerty as he skated through just 45 seconds into the game and Rod Sarich whisked home a powerplay opener (1:05) with the first shot on Jason Wolfe's goal.

Phoenix were soon level, Joe Miller wrapping the puck home via Mark Thomas' skate (5:15) but Regan Darby netted from 12 feet (7:14) and Shane Johnson found the far top corner from the left wing with Wolfe unsighted (10:13). Had he not scored, Tony Hand would have been sitting a high sticks penalty.

One minute into the second period Darby's right wing shot was pushed over the bar by Wolfe and the puck rebounded nicely to Dan Tessier who made no mistake (21:02). That appeared to be that until Molin showed he knew where the net was.

But Phoenix' lost momentum early in the third when Vychodil and Brett Clouthier took penalties 54 seconds apart. Only Tessier low on the right forced a save before Vychodil returned, with Sarich forcing another stop from distance on the remaining powerplay.

In the 49th minute Simon Mangos stick-handled through, but Lehman padded aside the effort. Phoenix retained possession though and Hand had 2 shots without making Lehman work.

Jonathon Phillips fierce screened shot was dropped by Wolfe and Warren Tait almost got to the loose puck, Phillips getting another shot in soon afterwards.

With Scott Basiuk sitting an interference penalty Jason Hewitt almost nipped in at the crease, then Wolfe did very well to stop Shaun Sutter's point-blank shot, with the same player going for a frozen puck to earn a slashing penalty. Clouthier showed his displeasure to taking a roughing penalty at the same time.

With Phillips sitting a tripping penalty, Basiuk broke his stick shooting and Vychodil's left wing shot was smothered. Phoenix called a timeout with 71 seconds remaining but couldn't force another save.

Earlier Phoenix had the early pressure following Sheffield's opener. At 2-1 Mango's point shot was padded to Molin, but he put his chance wide.

Tessier and Darby both forced good stops late in the first and Wolfe did well to parry the rebound off his own defenceman when Sarich tried a shot from beyond the goal line.

Three minutes into the middle period Paul Moran put his own rebound wide when well-placed after Wolfe made the initial save. Hewitt's slashing penalty saw Lehman making 2 saves from Mangos and another from Vychodil.

Back on the powerplay 2 minutes later, Lehman did well to blank Derek Campbell with Vychodil also testing the keeper, but then Sheffield started to dominate and Wolfe was kept busy.

Scott Ricci almost reached the rebound from Moran's right wing shot and Matt Towe forced an excellent glove save from close-in on the left.