With Scott Allen still out of the line up with injury, with a hopefully return imminent, Coach Aaron Fox switched up the lines as the Sheffield Steelers hosted reigning Play-Off Champions Cardiff Devils.
Coming into the game, the Steelers sat third in the league behind the Coventry Blaze and Guildford Flames with games in-hand on both. Cardiff sat mid-table in 5th having achieved 11 wins from their 18 league games played.
On lines, hard hitting Mason Mitchell joined McNally and Pitule to create a bruiser of a third line.
he Steelers were served with a very early warning in the first period as Cardiff had a Joey Martin goal waved off only 39 seconds into the encounter after review as it was deemed the puck had actually entered the goal from underneath the posts as Greenfield’s net was lifted and the Steelers blew a sigh of relief.
As the puck was leaving the Devils offensive zone, Petgrave was tripped at the blue line by Penny sending the Steelers on their first powerplay of the night.
The Steelers then shortly made it a 100% powerplay conversion as Brett Neumann was found at the back-post by Danny Kristo and he made no mistake roofing it over a sprawling Ben Bowns.
The Devils however pulled the game back level in the 11th minute courtesy of Sam Duggan as he picked up the puck in the slot and finished well on one knee in the top corner of Greenfield’s net. Assists to the two Josh’s, Brittain and Waller.
Steelers then had probably the best chance of the remaining period as a Sam Jones shot looked to be just heading inside the post on the right side before Bowns got enough blocker on it to send it wide.
The Devils then saw off a Brody Reid hooking penalty in the 17th minute without much alarm to send the teams into the second period all level at one goal apiece.
Cardiff then took the lead in the game early in the second period courtesy of a powerplay goal of their own after Schulze was called for a holding penalty. Schuzle and Fox unhappy with the goal on what looked to be an even tussle between two players in the corner.
However, Brodie Reid took advantage of the extra man and found the back of Greenfield’s net in similar fashion to that of Neumann from a nice Josh Waller feed. Crandall picking up the second assist.
Both teams saw off a further penalty each as Cardiff remained one goal ahead. Raska coming close to levelling the game as he tried to slide a loose puck home five-hole on Bowns but he just shut the pads closed quick enough to deny the chance.
The Steelers needed to add to their 18 shots on target to date to come away with the points in the third as the Devils looked sharper in-front of goal taking 2 of their 11 chances on goal.
And despite adding a further 15 shots on goal to the Devils 3, it was the Devils who skated away with the two points.
The game was levelled once again in the 46th minute as Robert Dowd did just enough to see the puck past Ben Bowns as it ricochet from pad to post and sneaked over the line.
But it was Cole Sandford who put dagger into the heart of the Steelers in the 54th minute as he put away a beautiful backhanded lay off from Trevor Cox with Greenfield standing no chance of getting across the crease. Joey Martin picking up the second assist on the game winner.
And despite the efforts with Greenfield pulled, the Steelers were unable to find another leveller and the Devils took the two points back to Cardiff.
Joey Martin picked up the Devils Man of the Match award with Niklas Nevalainen picking up the Steelers award.
With the Giants losing to the Storm at home, the Devils leapfrog them into 4th place, but it is still Guildford leading the way after another victory and now hold a 6 point lead at the top of the table.
We are back in action tomorrow night against the Coventry Blaze before the Devils are back in town once again on Wednesday, this time in Quarter Final Challenge Cup action. £8 tickets, 7.30pm face off – See you then!
With Sheffield match report
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