SHEFFIELD, U.K. – The Sheffield Steelers will go into the second leg of the EIHL Playoff quarter final two goals down after suffering a 5-3 loss to the Blaze in a feisty encounter.
The Steelers travelled to the West Midlands to take on the Coventry Blaze, a team who have proven to be the Steelers Achilles heel this season.
Despite retaining the EIHL title for a second consecutive season with 34 wins in 54 games, the Steelers only beat the Blaze four times in ten attempts against the Blaze this season.
The Steelers were boosted by the return of influential forward Colton Fretter, but were however without defenceman Zack Fitzgerald who will miss the weekend’s games with a hand injury.
The Blaze got off to the perfect start at 03:36 when Brett Robinson edged the Blaze ahead on the powerplay, after a great screen from Chris Bruton blocking the view of Steelers netminder Marek Pinc. Robinson fired high blocker side past Pinc to make it 1-0.
The Steelers responded and came close when Colton Fretter forced a great save from Brian Stewart at 05:19.
Brian Stewart was a brick wall once again for the Blaze (Image courtesy of Scott Wiggins)
A fired up Blaze signalled their intent at 08:25 when feisty forward Cale Tanaka struck the post on the powerplay in the eighth minute.
The visitors offered a chance of their own on the powerplay with veteran forward Jeff Legue forcing Brian Stewart into making a great low leg pad save at 14:39.
The Blaze doubled their advantage at 17:33 when Cale Tanaka had the decisive touch in front of net after a goal mouth scramble to give his side a 2-0 lead.
The hosts added a third goal at 24:35 with former Braehead Clan forward Chris Bruton being a nuisance in front of goal and netting from close range after another scramble in front of Marek Pinc.
Less than two minutes later Bruton turned from scorer to provider when his slapshot from the blueline took a fortuitous bounce off the back boards behind Pinc’s net and fell nicely for Carl Lauzon who netted from close range at 26:13 to make it 4-0.
There was a glimmer of hope for the Steelers at 29:16 when workhorse forward Tyler Mosienko found himself on a breakaway only to be denied by a great sprawling save from Brian Stewart.
The Blaze countered and just 16 seconds later they added a fifth goal with agitator Kevin Noble firing a rocket of a slapshot low past Marek Pinc from the left wing half boards.
At 32:14 the Steelers got on the scoresheet courtesy of Fredrik Vestberg who fired high blocker side on a breakaway past Stewart giving the vocal travelling support something to cheer about.
Cale Tanaka celebrates the Blaze second goal (Image courtesy of Scott Wiggins)
Tempers were frayed at 34:23 when Blaze pantomime villain Boris Valabik threw a high hit on Steelers captain Jonathan Phillips, who then responded with a cross check, resulting in Phillips being ejected from the game.
No further scoring followed in the second period, one in which the Steelers outshot the Blaze 15-12.
At 44:19 the Steelers added a second goal courtesy of Great Britain international Rob Dowd who fired top shelf blocker side with a sublime wrist shot past Stewart to reduce the arrears to three.
Steelers netminder Marek Pinc had to be alert moments later saving a backhanded shot from Cale Tanaka.
Despite a much better period from the visitors, Brian Stewart once again proved to be the thorn in the Steelers side with outstanding saves from Jeff Legue, Mathieu Roy and former NHL’er Guillaume Desbiens.
At 53:30 referee Dean Smith decided to hand out coincidental 10-minute personal misconducts for Chris Bruton and Tyler Mosienko after their on ice disagreement led to extended verbals after the play.
The visitors were handed a late powerplay chance at 57:40 with former Steeler Jim Jorgensen sitting out a charging minor penalty.
The Steelers duly took advantage at 58:29 with Guillaume Desbiens re-directing a Ben O’Connor point shot high past Stewart, to reduce the deficit to two goals.
As Desbiens was celebrating Valabik maliciously elbowed him in the face, resulting in Desbiens having to be helped off the ice by the Steelers medical staff and taken to hospital with a suspected broken jaw. Shockingly Valabik was not penalised on the play.
The Blaze will return to Sheffield 24-hours-later with a two-goal cushion to play the second leg in which will more than likely be another feisty end-to-end affair.
Contact the author at Scott.antcliffe@prohockeynews.com
Follow Pro Hockey News on Twitter – @prohockeynews
Follow the author on Twitter – @cliffy94
You must be logged in to post a comment.