Storm and Steelers battle to end Week 2 in first

Photo: Dean Woolley

It's a top-of-the-table clash to end Super Sunday this evening as Manchester and Sheffield meet at 7pm.

The winners of game ten will end the week first in the standings ahead of rest day on Monday.

Seven days ago, the Storm spoiled Sheffield's opening weekend party by snatching victory inside the final minute. Since then,. Manchester were beaten by Nottingham but beat Coventry in overtime again to post a 3-0-1 record through four rounds.

Sheffield made a statement win on Saturday as they raced into a 5-0 first-period lead against rivals Nottingham. The Steelers have scored more goals than anyone else in the Elite Series by some distance, averaging 5.5 per game - at 22 scored, they've put in more than Coventry and Nottingham combined as of Sunday morning.

Storm are the next highest-scorers, averaging 3.5 per game. Both sides give up an average of 3.25, suggesting that whichever team can keep it tighter tonight will skate away with the points. 

Manchester lead the series on the powerplay at a whopping 26.32%, but their kill needs to be a lot hotter than the 69.23% it currently is. Conversely, Sheffield will want more than the 9% scoring they're getting on the PP so far, while 83.33% kills is solid but probably something Aaron Fox wants to improve.

British forward Liam Kirk leads the series for points (9) thus far, has also shot the puck more than any player in the tournament (25), and leads the plus/minus rankings (+9). He is joined on five goals by Storm's Ciaran Long

Team news
Playing 24 hours after the win against Nottingham, the Steelers did not report any injuries post-game on Saturday and look to be at full strength again, minus goalie John Muse. If Manchester are able to ice five defensemen again, Fox may be tempted to go for the extra twelfth forward for this one - Adam Jones has iced as the seventh defenseman in several games so far.

Manchester will assess Andreas Klavestad after a pre-game skate this morning. The Norweigan is slowly recovering from a lower-body injury and had been one of Manchester's key players prior to picking up an injury against the Steelers last week. Sean Bonar is expected to start in net with Sam Gospel backing up again.