Steelers edge past Flyers to stay in pole position

Photo: Dean Woolley

Sheffield Steelers stayed on top of the Premier Sports Elite League but were made to work hard for their two-goal win by basement side Fife Flyers at in front of 6,438 fans at the Utilita Arena.

When Sheffield opened the scoring after just 63 seconds, it looked like the floodgates might open at the Utilita Arena. Vojta Polák put the Steelers one ahead with a back-post tap in.

The hosts doubled their lead through Ranner Eberle at 15:31, who made sure he got Robert Dowd's feed away from the defensemen and backhanded over Shane Owen into the net.

Two up heading into period two, many would have expected the Steelers to go on to ride out the game comfortably. Fife, however, had other ideas and battled away to keep themselves in the game. Shane Owen stopped 18 shots in the middle 20 minutes to keep his side in the game. 

The Flyers' netminder stopped a further 14 in period three before the Flyers cut the deficit to just one goal - recent arrival Brandon Magee slapped a shot into the top corner of Barry Brust's net from the edge of the circle to make it a one-goal game. 

Hopes of a late fightback were ended, however, when Polák found the empty net with 10 seconds to go to give the Steelers the victory.