25 Feb 2024, 16:00 | Regular season | Sheffield Arena |
Sheffield Steelers | 4-1 | Coventry Blaze |
Periods: Shots: | 1-0 (11-6) | 2-1 (7-18) | 1-0 (12-4) | Total: 30-28 |
|
Referees: Pering/Neenan  |  Spectators: 7526 |
  |
Goals and assists
Sheffield Steelers have still yet to lose two games in a row this
season, responding to Saturday's defeat in Cardiff with a 4-1/home win
over Coventry Blaze on Sunday afternoon.
Mitchell Balmas opened
the scoring at 3:38 with a wrist shot that beat Taran Kozun low on an
early powerplay. Coventry grew into the game well and had most of their
opportunities come from the Roth-McNulty-Kristo line that got in behind
the Steelers defense a couple of times. The period ended with just that
Balmas goal separating the teams.
45 seconds into the second, Mikko Juusola doubled the home side's
lead, but the Steelers took a series of penalties for shooting the puck
out of bounds which led to Johnny Curran's shot in the slot getting
Coventry on the board during a 5-on-3. It was a period littered with
penalties, but Coventry took two late, despite starting on a
man-advantage themselves, which came back to haunt them - Marc-Olivier
Vallerand netting on the 4-on-3 with 32 seconds left in the period.
Coventry were handed a powerplay early in period three but were
punished the other way as Brett Neumann scored shorthanded at 45:05 to
put the home side three ahead, and all-but end the visitors' hopes of a
comeback.
The Steelers almost added a fifth but were denied by the final buzzer sounding seconds before.