In the only game of the weekend for the Sheffield Steelers, two points were secured in a solid home display from Aaron Fox’s side, beating the Fife Flyers by six goals to two.
Steelers welcomed back Robert Dowd to the lineup but lost Aaron Brocklehurst in the build up to the game through illness.
There was an air of anticipation with the ‘Teddy Bear Toss’ looming and having shutout the Belfast Giants on their own Teddy Toss, would the Steelers right their wrongs from last year.
It was in fact the Flyers who took the lead as they aimed to spoil the evening at 03:38 with James Livingston tapping in a rebound.
As the Steelers pushed for that all important first goal it would be Eric Meland who sent the Teddy Bears flying, finishing from close in on Adam Morrison (11:51)Sheffield began to apply the pressure and went close on numerous occasions but two sensational saves from Morrison to deny Lemtyugov and Dowd kept the scores level.On the power player at 15:30, Marco Vallerand took a shot from the point, it brushed off the chest of the Flyers defenceman and past a helpless goalie.
Two became three, again on the powerplay 1:45 into the middle period, a nice pass from Tanner Eberle, found O’Connor at the blue line and he set up DeLuca to fire past Morrison.
Aaron Fox’s Steelers continued to press for more but couldn’t quite find the cutting edge they needed to.
Fife, in response, found themselves on the power play and through Carlo Finucci pulled a goal back against the run of play (36:38).
Chances for the visitors were few and far between in the second period and had it not been for a brilliant defensive display from Davey Phillips to get the right side of his man and block a shot on Duba, it could have been tied at three.
Already with one goal to his name, Marco Vallerand was sent through on goal by his line-mate DeLuca, and rounded Morrison to fire high into the roof of the goal. 4-2 was the score heading into the final period.(37:29)
Steelers were without John Armstrong for the final two periods, but didn’t seem to suffer in creating offensive chances and the lead was extended to three when Michael Davies got his third goal of the week.
Nice play from Nikolai Lemtyugov and Robert Dowd set up Davies who found a way past the goalie (43:03).
A handful of power play opportunities fell to the visiting side but Tomas Duba and a rock solid penalty kill kept the Flyers at bay.
It was a welcome back to The Golden Child as Robert Dowd extended the lead even further with a sixth goal for the Steelers with just over seven minutes still to play
With Sheffield match report
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