The Steelers made it 13 wins out of the last 14 games tonight as they took on the Manchester Storm at the Utilita Arena in Elite League action.
Early team news was that the Phillips’ would swap places as Jonathan was side-lined but Davey made his return to the squad. In goal would be Barry Brust, backed up by Curtis Warburton with Rok likely to start tomorrow’s game against the Glasgow Clan as our netminding tandem continue to share the duties.
Brust, Phillips, Schulze, Eberle, Hodgman and Mosey made up the starting six for the Steelers.
The Stelers couldn’t have made a better start to the game as Marco Vallerand found the back of the net with only 1 minute and 11 seconds on the board. The goal required a trip to the referees television screen to check for any interference on the Storm netminder as Vallerand drove towards the net and poked it home, but a quick review saw a good goal given.
The Storm were on the board themselves shortly afterwards at 2.05 following a three on two chance which Vanwormer tapped home on the second attempt.
A quick tempo game saw the Steelers retake the lead at 4.08 courtesy of in-form man Justin Hodgman as he trailed the ensuing play and was found by Eberle in the high slot where he fired his wrist shot high stick side on Bacashihua.
The Steelers took a two goal advantage into the second period as the third goal came at 18.29. Tanner Eberle with all the hard work as he spun to avoid a hip check from Linden Springer at the hash marks, and as Springer fell to the ice he found Traversa at the back post who made no mistake firing home into an open goal.
At the start of the second period the Storm took the opportunity to change their netminder with James Downie replacing Bacashihua.
The Steelers went on to make it a three goal cushion at 32.47 as Martin Latal pulled the new Storm goalie out of position and found Vojtech Polak at the back post to tap it home into the empty net.
The Storm brought the game back within two goals for a short period of time as the Storm captain, Dallas Ehrhardt beat Brust high with a good finish on the powerplay.
The Steelers reinstated the three goal cushion shortly afterwards at 39.41 through Kevin Schulze who was found by Vallerand and beat Downie blocker side.
With tomorrow’s home game against the Clan in mind, the Steelers stepped off the gas in the third period to see home a comfortable win and take away another two points at home make it 12 wins from the last 12 games at the Sheffield Arena.
The two points tonight keeps a two point gap on the Cardiff Devils with four games in hand and three points over the Belfast Giants with two games in hand.
We do it all again tomorrow, this time dressed in Valentines Pink as we take on the Glasgow Clan. £8 including fees for all tickets, what a bargain! 4pm face off – See you there Sheffield!
With Steelers match report
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