Clan beat league leaders
Photo: Al Goold
After three one-goal defeats to Sheffield in four games so far this season, Glasgow Clan finally got the better of the Steelers and beat the league leaders 5-3 at Braehead Arena on Wednesday night.
Clan were good value for their lead after 20 minutes with some good looks to opening the score, but it took until 17:22 when defenseman Mitch Jones joined the rush, deked his man, and went high on Rok Stojanovič to make it 1-0.
Starting period two of the attack, Clan went two ahead at 27:14 when Matt Haywood turned the puck over on the offensive zone and played it to Jordan Buesa in the slot for the nice finish - his first goal of the season. 23 seconds later, a neat Colin Campbell pass found Braylon Shmyr at the pack post to deflect past Stojanovič to give the hosts a 3-0 lead.
Tanner Eberle got the Steelers back into things at 35:42, and minutes later they were denied what they thought was a second goal as the officials ruled it out for goalie interference on review. Less than 90 seconds later, however, the Steelers did make it a one-goal game - Kevin Schulze got the puck from Rob Dowd's faceoff win, and was allowed too much time and space to pick his spot past Shane Starrett with 1:53 left in the period,
The next goal was always going to be crucial, and 38 seconds into period three it went the way the majority of the 2,363 fans inside Braehead Arena were hoping it would - Mikko Vainonen flicked the puck high over Stojanovič from an angle to give the home side some breathing space.Guillaume Gauthier made it 5-2 on the powerplay just over two minutes later, although Eberle's miss-hit shot on a loose puck in front looped over Starrett to bring it back to a two-goal game with just over 11 minutes to play.
Sheffield had good-zone time in the final ten minutes of the game but couldn't carve out any clear-cut scoring chances and, despite pulling Stojanovič late, were unable to force their way back into the game. Clan held on for an important 5-3 home win, their first against the Steelers since 2019.
