SHEFFIELD, U.K. – The Sheffield Steelers maintained their impressive undefeated run in the Elite League with another win over the Dundee Stars whom they have already beaten twice already with scores of 6-0 and 7-0. Dundee seem to have improved of late, putting behind the shaky start they had, conceding 47 goals in seven games!
Dundee’s most notorious player, the Sheriff Sean McMorrow was excused from the game to fight in a hockey enforcer’s tournament in Finland called Ice Warriors.
Even without the presence of McMorrow there were plenty of fireworks on the ice with a combined 109 penalty minutes handed out by referee Dean Smith.
The first of these penalty minutes were handed out in the third minute of the game, when Steelers latest addition Derek Campbell finished a hit on Makway, with the latter giving Campbell an extra shove. Campbell then motioned to drop the gloves, with Makway duly obliging. Campbell lost his footing in the fight against a much bigger Makway, who claimed honours between the two.
Sheffield were first on the score sheet after a simple backdoor goal from Great Britain international Robert Dowd on the powerplay six minutes in.
Fellow Great Britain international and team captain Jonathan Phillips gave the home team a two-goal lead, after a blistering slapshot from just over the blueline in the twelfth minute to make it 2-0 to Sheffield.
There were more fireworks in the thirteenth minute as Ashley Tait was cross checked by the Stars’ Mark Nebus as he was bearing down on the Dundee goal. The check from Nebus resulted in Tait taking out Stars’ netminder Jerad Kaufmann, with most of the Stars’ taking exception to this. A melee ensued which saw fighting majors handed out to Nebus and Ceman of the Stars and Steve Munn and Derek Campbell of Sheffield. Campbell was also assessed a match penalty for abuse of an official, which means he will miss Steelers next game against arch rivals the Nottingham Panthers on Saturday (9th October).
Jonathan Phillips netted his second of the game six minutes into the second period to add further misery to the Dundee Stars. Dundee battled back and got their reward with a goal from Gary Wishart on the powerplay in the twenty-ninth minute to give the Stars a glimmer of hope. No further scoring followed in the period, and some fine saves from Dundee’s Jerad Kaufmann kept the Steelers and the scoreline at bay.
The third period was only 41 seconds young when Ashley Tait netted on the powerplay to make it 4-1 to the South Yorkshire side.
A resurgent Dundee were not ready to give up just yet, and captain Brent Hughes scored Dundee’s second of the night to make it an interesting final fifteen minutes. Both teams pressed and had chances, but could not convert them. Some great saves from netminders Ervins Mustukovs and Jerad Kaufmann of Sheffield and Dundee respectively, ensured that the 4-2 scoreline remained that way.
Sheffield have a tough weekend ahead, playing both Nottingham away (9th October) and Belfast at home (10 th October) in two mouth watering top of the table clashes, which will be a real test for Ben Simon’s men. Contact the author Scott.Antcliffe@Prohockeynews.com
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