16 Dec 2023, 19:00 | Regular season | Sheffield Arena |
Sheffield Steelers | 7-4 | Fife Flyers |
Periods: Shots: | 2-2 (14-10) | 2-1 (14-4) | 3-1 (19-6) | Total: 47-20 |
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Referees: Wells/Dalton  |  Spectators: 6682 |
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Goals and assists
Sheffield Steelers survived a scare by Fife Flyers for the second
straight game as they claimed a 7-4 victory at Utilita Arena in front of
6,682 spectators.
Two goals in the opening four minutes looked to
have put the Steelers in complete control of this game, but good
resilience from the Flyers saw things all tied after 20 minutes. Patrick
Walting's wrist shot beat Shane Owen with 121 seconds played, leading
to thousands of bears to be thrown onto the ice. At 3:46, Dominic
Cormier shot deflected off Colin Shirley's face and past his own goalie
into the net. The Steelers could have been further ahead but were pegged
back to 2-1 by Anthon Eriksson coming in unchecked in the slot and
converting a neat reverse pass from Max Humitz. After the home side
missed a couple of excellent chances on a Sean Giles Hooking minor,
Lucas Chiodo was also untracked in the offensive zone and beat Matt
Greenfield high off Shirley's pass to tie the game at 16:25.
Fife
shocked the home crowd by taking the lead early in period two through a
big slapshot from Vitalijs Pavlovs that beat Greenfield five-hole to
quieten the arena, and it was a key stick lift by the Latvian that
stopped Brandon Whistle tying the game a couple of shifts later.. Robert
Dowd levelled for the hosts just over three minutes later with a shot
that deflected behind Owen off Kyle Osterberg's stick, and then Daniel
Ciampini was on hand to poke home a loose puck at 28:58 to put the
Steelers back into the lead.
The Steelers moved 5-3 ahead when
Fife were called for two minors on the same play - Owen for Tripping and
Humitz Holding. Having nearly seen off the 5-on-3, Brett Neumann tipped
Patrick Walting's shot with five seconds left of the two-man advantage
top ut the hosts back two ahead. Anthony Eriksson fed Lucas Chiodo for a
well-taken odd-man rush goal two minutes later to again pull the Flyers
back to within one, but the visitors were undone on a powerplay as
Giles struggled to keep the puck in the zone, and Mark Simpson raced
away to feed Brandon Whistle for the finish on a 2-on-0 shorthanded
rush. Simpson added a late empty netter as the Flyers took Owen out to
complete a 7-4 win.