Steelers too strong for Panthers in final period

Photo: Panthers Images

Sheffield Steelers got back to winning ways thanks to a dominant third period display against the Nottingham Panthers in front of a sold out Motorpoint Arena crowd.

Having lost their last two games, Sheffield got off to the perfect start on the road. A bad giveaway from Aaron Thow in his own zone presented the puck to Justin Hodgman, and the steelers' forward made no mistake firing past Kevin Carr after just 20 seconds. 

The Panthers had a golden chance to level on a 5-on-3 powerplay but came up short, and were punished when Martin Látal scored form distance on a Steelers powerplay at 13:08. Having started poorly, the Panthers gradually began to fight their way back into the game, A broken play put the puck on the stick of Jeremy Welsh who beat Barry Brush at 14:39, and just under four minutes later a scrappy passage of play in front of Brust's net allowed Christophe Boivin to tie the game.

Two each after 20 minutes, the sides were still tied after 40 minutes but each added a goal over the second period. Robert Dowd nicely set up Vojta Polák for a back post finish on the powerplay to put the Steelers bak ahead just past the midway point of the game. However, some three minutes later the Panthers were level when Brady Norrish beat Brust blocker side for his first goal of the season.

A badly-time hit put Mathieu Tousignant in the penalty box 6:24 into period three, and a minute later Polák had his second of the game to put the visitors back ahead. This time it was a lead that they weren't going to give up - Rob Dowd broke the Steelers all-time EIHL scoring record with a nice to-shelf finish at 52:41 to put them 5-3 up, while Tanner Eberle made it six with 3:32 to play. John Armstrong found the empty net with 72 seconds remaining to round off a 7-3 win for the Steelers to keep them top of the league.