Sheffield Steelers made it a three-point weekend with a five-goal shutout win over Manchester Storm on Sunday afternoon.
Matt Greenfield logged his 21st shutout as a Steeler. “I thought we were outstanding. Anytime you score 30 seconds into the game is always going to be a good start,” he said. We answered the bell physically, playing the game right way. It was Steelers hockey to a T and a big win for us.”
Sheffield opened the scoring after a brief delay for ice repairs. Mitchell Heard reacted quickest to a loose puck, batting it past Drew DeRidder after Kevin Tansey’s shot created the chance. The hosts doubled their lead on the powerplay while Harrison Cairns sat for slashing, with Mikko Juusola finding Derek Gentile alone at the back post for a tap-in.
The period ended with a heated confrontation in front of the net, drawing several players and resulting in 26 penalty minutes. Heard and Clavelle tangled, while Tansey clashed with Welsh and Cutler. As things calmed and the faceoff was being prepared, Welsh received an additional 10-minute misconduct for something said while he was in the box.
The tension carried into the second period. Heard, still serving his fighting major, and Kyle Locke dropped the gloves before the puck was dropped, leading to automatic ejections for both players.
Manchester created the first big chance of the period when Brandon Cutler fed Kaleb Ergang at the back post, but Greenfield made a superb reflex save. Sheffield extended their lead with 3:38 left in the period, as Juusola set up Mitchell Balmas to snap the puck past DeRidder for 3-0.
Storm hit a post early in the third while trying to generate a comeback and survived giving up a 3-on-1 the other way. With his team struggling to break through, Cam Critchlow called a timeout inside the final four minutes. DeRidder was pulled soon after and Storm struck another post before Robert Dowd hit the empty net with 2:23 left. Cliff Pu added a fifth from the slot with 1:45 remaining.
Manchester’s Stephen Johnson summed up the frustration:
“It’s pretty disappointing, especially as we came off such a big win on Saturday night. We had our chances, Sheffield capitalised on theirs and then we kinda gave up too much. We’ve talked about somethings we need to clean up, it wasn’t the outcome we wanted. It was frustratung not getting the result.”
Greenfield also reflected on his milestone performance after registering his 21st shutout for Sheffield:
“I’ve said it since I got here: shutouts are a team stat. A lot of credit goes to the guys in front of me, they locked things down, and didn’t give Manchester a ton of looks. The boys played great, it’s always nice to get some puck luck and a few posts, but we were excellent.”
With EIHL match report
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