Sheffield Steelers 1-5 Coventry Blaze
Challenge Cup Final 2nd Leg
Blaze win 9-4 on aggregate

Both sides at full strength.

Trailing by one goal from the first leg, Sheffield needed a goal. But it didn't come until 10 minutes remained and Blaze had by then helped themselves to four at the other end.

The 4,797 fans saw just why Coventry won the league last week, as they gave an impressive display of power and accuracy, backed up by the kind of steely determination not to concede a goal that used to be the hallmark of Sheffield Steeler's teams. And on this display "zero tolerance" has bitten the dust for this season!

Sheffield paid a heavy price for leaving Samy Nasreddine alone 12 feet out and he made no mistake when Dan Carlson picked him out (9:46). Similarly when Vezio Sacratini took a holding penalty, Barrie Moore deflected in Danny Stewart's shot from the right boards (13:24) and Sheffield had a mountain to climb. But it could have been so different as seconds earlier Dan Tessier broke away up the right and Shaun Sutter arrived at the far post, only to put his chance wide. This surely was the turning point of the game.

Koenig and his defence stood tall and when Carlson got away down the right, Stewart arrived at the back post and showed how it should be done. Jody Lehman made the intial save but could nothing to stop Stewart converting at the second attempt (26:39).

Blaze then ran into penalty problems presenting Sheffield with nearly a minute of 5-on-3, but Koenig was not to be beaten making 8 saves. His save from a Rod Sarich slapshot was all the more impressive as it was deflected immediately in front of him, but he still held it cleanly.

Early in the final session Shane Johnson's hooking penalty saw Sheffield only just clearing the danger from Ashley tait's left wing shot, but just when it seemed the penalty had been killed the visitors swept back up the ice and Moore defelected Nasreddine's pass beyond Lehman (44:07). Six minutes later Sutter deflected Tessier's shot past Koenig with Carlson sitting a slashing penalty (49:56). But Blaze stepped up a gear for the final 10 minutes and Lehman was the busier keeper. Finnerty's suicidal cross-ice pass was latched onto by Carlson who span and hit a bullet to wrap up the scoring (57:08) in front of 1,000 ecstatic Coventry fans.