15 Oct 2023, 16:00 | Regular season | Sheffield Arena |
Sheffield Steelers | 3-0 | Dundee Stars |
Periods: Shots: | 2-0 (9-5) | 0-0 ( - ) | 1-0 ( - ) | Total: 9-5 |
|
Referees: Pering/Good  |  Spectators: 6259 |
  |
Goals and assists
Sheffield Steelers went top of the Elite League with a three-goal,
shutout win over Dundee Stars on Sunday afternoon in front of 6,259 fans
at the Utilita Arena.
There was action inside the opening 10
seconds with the Stars needing to clear the puck off the line to prevent
themselves for falling behind early. IT was a game that started
physically, and so it was no surprise when Robert Dowd and James Phelan
dropped the gloves with just 8:18 played. Johnny Walker took a needless
Holding the Stick penalty after the whistle at 11:59 which set up the
Steelers for their first powerplay of the game - Mitchell Balmas needed
35 seconds to one-time a Marc-Olivier Vallerand pass past Kevin Carr to
open the scoring. John Nicholls made it 2-2 for the Steelers with the
man advantage at 17:58 in a period where Brett Neumann also hit the
frame of Carr's goal. Phelan caught Colton Saucerman late with seven
seconds left in the period, and the pair came together in the aftermath.
Fighting majors were given out, resulting in Phelan being ejected for
his second major in the game.
Carr and, at the other end, Matt
Greenfield, were the stars of period two, keeping both teams out over
the next 20 minutes. The Stars were much better after the restart and
came close to getting themselves on the board on a couple of occasions, a
puck bobbling about in Greenfield's crease the closest they came to
getting back to within one.
Dundee had more chanced to open their
account at the beginning of the third period. Ryan Valentini missed the
target on a breakaway, while a Chris McKay solo effort also only ended
with Greenfield saving. However, with those chances not taken the
Steelers made their visitors pay and grabbed a third, Balmas patiently
out-waited Carr and threw the puck into the crease to Josh Nicholls to
shoot into the empty net through a crowd of players with just over nine
minutes to play. Kevin Carr prevented a fourth with an excellent paddle
save with 2:23 left on the clock.