Sheffield Steelers 5-2 Newcastle Vipers

Sheffield missing Jason Hewitt (broken ribs), Newcastle missing Pavel Gomenyuk and Burt Henderson.

3379 saw Sheffield skate to a comfortable win against the depleted Vipers, though once again they were reliant on their keeper Jody Lehman to come up with big saves time and again. Dan Tessier took the accolades with 3 goals, but Colin Shields was first to light the lamp (4:40). Tessier levelled (10:30) with Andre Payette sitting a slashing minor, and Jonathan Phillips and Joey Talbot added first-time shots (14:01) and (15:20) to seal the win, despite Jeff Hutchins squeezing the puck through Lehman's pads late in the first (19:20). Tessier ripped a shot high into the net (31:15) in a middle session dominated by the home team with an empty net goal scored from his own end (59:01) rounding off the scoring.

Newcastle killed an early penalty with ease before Colin Shields got away down the left and buried the puck in the far bottom corner. With Andre Payette sitting the visitor's second slashing penalty of the night, Dan Tessier rifled home from low on the right. Ashley Tait skated through but lost the puck and Jonathan Phillips arrived behind him to whip the puck beyond a surprised Ryan MacDonald. Just 13 seconds later Phillips popped up at the back door but MacDonald got his right pad in the way to keep the puck out. Ryan Finnerty's cross-ice pass was blasted home first-time by Joey Talbot. Vipers went straight on the attack, Derek Campbell's shot from the left was padded aside, Todd Jackson followed up but again Lehman made the save leaving Shields with a gilt-edged chance to bury the loose puck, but Lehman recovered to block that one as well. Late in the period, Shaun Johnson won the draw and Jeff Hutchins' shot squeezed through Lehman's pads.

Dan Tessier ripped a shot high into the net from left of centre for the only goal of a middle period in which Sheffield rained shots on MacDonald, but in truth rarely looked like scoring. The period began with Shaun Johnson testing an unsighted Lehman from 10 feet. Ryan Finnerty's hooking penalty produced no shots on the Sheffield goal, but as Finnerty returned Todd Jackson found Shields at the back post and Lehman did well to get his stick to it. At the other end Talbot popped up close in but MacDonald shut the door.

With Doug Sheppard sitting an interference penalty, Lehman saved shots from Shields and Ben Storey but it was Tessier who scored at the other end with Sheffield back to full strength. As the goalies were kept busy Tessier should have added another in the final two minutes, Ashley tait's shot being padded straight to him but he blasted wide.

A quiet third period was kept interesting as Lehman was occasionally left exposed, pulling off some big saves, starting with one from Shields as Ian Manzano sat a delay of game penalty for firing the puck out. Mark Gouette's hooking penalty saw Randy Dagenais fire in and his defence did well to clear the puck from the crease with Talbot ready to pounce.

With Dagenais sitting a tripping minor, Lehman dived for the puck beyond his left post only to lose it and Shields should have done better than firing at the prostrate keeper.

With 8 minutes remaining Jez Lundin's shot was padded to Johnson close-in, but Lehman saved again to thwart the veteran. Four minutes later a speculative lob was brought down by the goalie and Shields pounced, only for Steve Munn to block the shot.

Derek Campbell forced a save from the right and the puck was passed back to Jackson 10 feet out but another huge pad save from the home keeper kept the puck out.

In one last desperate gamble to get something from the game Vipers lifted MacDonald, but Tessier hit the empty net from his own zone to seal the win.