Steelers too strong for Blaze

Photo: Aimee Hollingsworth

Sheffield Steelers produced an excellent opening two period to race into a four-goal lead en route to a 5-2 win over Coventry Blaze on Sunday afternoon.

Out-shooting their hosts 17-8 in the opening period, the Steelers led by two after 20 minutes. Brett Neumann opened the scoring at 13:08 when he followed up a Mikko Juusola shot with the puck sitting in Taran Kozun's crease. JD Dudek showed nice hands to create a great chance for himself but could beat Matt Greenfield shortly after, and the Steelers then punished that missed opportunity when Robert Dowd's shot snuck through Kozun with 3:59 left in the period.

4:14 into period two, Mark Simpson beat Kozun short side with another the Blaze goalie would likely want back to put the home side in a hole. Coventry had their chances at the other end but without really calling Greenfield into any serious work, and five minutes before the intermission Daniel Ciampini's shot produced a juicy rebound for Dowd to fire home and make it 4-0.

Danny Kristo netted against his former team to get the Blaze on the board at 48:56, 14 seconds after which Aaron Fox called his timeout to steady the Steelers. Kobe Roth brought the hosts back to within two with 6:07 to play and gave the Blaze a new lease of life. Kozun was pulled at 56:26 for the extra attacker gamble, but the Steelers only needed 11 seconds to find the empty net.