13 Oct 2024, 17:30 | Regular season | SkyDome Arena |
Coventry Blaze | 4-2 | Sheffield Steelers |
Periods: Shots: | 1-1 (11-12) | 0-1 (8-16) | 3-0 (13-10) | Total: 32-38 |
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Referees: Miller/Truswell  |  Spectators: 2076 |
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Goals and assists
Coventry Blaze logged their first regulation time home win over
Sheffield Steelers since September 2018 in a highly entertaining 4-2
game at the Skydome, seen by 2,076 fans.
The last time the
Steelers were in Coventry they took the lead after just 14 seconds. This
time, they were ahead inside two minutes – Marc-Olivier Vallerand
finishing from a Robert Dowd pass. The latter’s assist saw the Great
Britain international forward draw level with Colin Shields’ all-time
points record in the Elite League, and he will no doubt go on to break
it in the coming weeks.
Coventry tied the game with a rocket of a
one-timer from Brandon Alderson on the powerplay with 6:10 played,
although the hosts were lucky to get out of the opening period level
after running into some penalty trouble which saw them skate 5-on-3 down
inside the final four minutes. Killing both of those off generated some
excellent momentum in the arena.
Sheffield went back ahead at
38:37 when a broken play saw Mikko Juusola work the puck to Kevin Tansey
for an excellent one-timer past Mat Robson. Two events towards the end
of that period would go on to have a big effect on the third, and the
game. Daniel Ciampini was ejected on a Cross-Checking penalty that was
confirmed on video review with 42 seconds left in the period, and then
on the buzzer Brandon Whistle was given a minor for the same offense,
meaning the Blaze would start period three on a 5-on-3 advantage.
The
home side’s powerplay went to work and came up trumps. Jakob Stridsberg
scored his first professional goal with a wrist shot from the point as
Kim Tallberg screened Matt Greenfield ar 42:01. 75 seconds later, a
Chase Gresock shot took a wild deflection off Brian Diffley’s stick and
sailed past a wrong-footed Greenfield to put the Blaze ahead.
With
the Steelers chasing the game late, the Blaze broke 2-on-1 and Tallberg
set up Zach Heintz for the back-post finish which gave the home side a
two-goal advantage. Aaron Fox called his timeout with 1:26 to play, but
the Steelers couldn’t find another way past the impressive Robson and
the Blaze held on for a league victory that leaves them the only
unbeaten team in league play.