Steelers give up lead but win in shootout

Photo: Dean Woolley

Sheffield Steelers earned midweek shootout win over Coventry Blaze in front of the Viaplay camera on Wednesday night at the Utilita Arena, but had to do it the hard way after the Blaze battled back from three down late on.

The visiting Blaze led at 12:51 when Mitch Cook deflected Radek Veselý's shot past Matt Greenfield at the top of the crease. Sheffield, however, responded with a pair of goals in less than forty seconds to turn the game around. Brandon McNally beat Paavo Hölsä with a well-placed but innocent-looking shot from the circle at 15:25, followed by Mason Mitchell batting a mid-air puck into the net off a rebound from a Jonathan Phillips tip. 

Mitchell scored this second of the night when he cleaned up the rebound from a David Phillips blueline slapshot at 27:43, before Robert dowd fired home a loose puck after Hölsä had initially denied Danny Kristo in front. 

Colton Yellow Horn pulled the Blaze back to within two with 16:51 to play but with his team will a pair behind Head Coach Danny Stewart pulled his netminder with over four minutes to go in an effort to close the gap. Ross Venus got a final touch on David Clements' shot from the point to make it 4-3 with 2:30 left. With 66 seconds remaining, off an offensive zone faceoff win the puck was worked back to Clements who wristed through traffic to tie the game with the Blaze again having six skaters on the ice. 

Greenfield denied Marley Quince when the Blaze broke 2-on-0 early in overtime, while on the following play Hölsä was there to stop the Steelers from winning it on a 2-on-1 rush the other way. The Blaze netminder pulled off an excellent high save on Markus Nevalinen as bonus hockey approached its final two minutes, while at the other end Ross Venus fed Jack Billings who couldn't beat Greenfield from a tight angle. With 55 seconds to play, Hölsä robbed Brett Neumann with a point-blank stop, while Greenfield's save with one second left forced the game into a shootout.

Thanks to goals from Kristo and Daniel Ciampini, the Steelers led by two through three rounds of the shootout, however the Blaze again battled back with Billings and Colton Yellow Horn scoring while Hölsä denied Matt Petgrave and Rob Dowd at the other end. In sudden death, Billings couldn't score again while Kristo did to earn Sheffield the extra point.