Steelers comfortably into cup semis

Photo: James Assinder

Sheffield Steelers cruised into the Viaplay Challenge Cup Semi-Finals with a 10-4 aggregate win over Cardiff Devils in the Quarter-Finals, beating Cardiff Devils 5-3 on the night in the second leg.

Heading into Ice arena Wales with a four-goal aggregate lead, the last thing the Steelers would have wanted to do is go behind early, but they did when Trevor Cox put the Devils ahead after only 41 seconds as he got the final touch after a Joey Martin drive to the net. However, Niklas Nevalainen scoring on a rebound at 3:49 brought the Steelers back level and began to turn the momentum in the building. 37 seconds later, Martin Látal put home a loose puck that Ben Bowns thought he had covered, while four minutes later Dowd beat Bowns 2-on-0 to make it 3-1 to the visitors - a goal that also saw Bowns' night end early with Taran Kozun taking over goaltending duties for the hosts.

Blake Thompson fed Brodie Reid to beat Matt Greenfield short side to pull the score back to 3-2, the final goal of the opening period.

With no breakthrough for the Devils in period two, they headed into the third knowing they needed to score five without reply to force the game into overtime. However, goals from Brett Neumann at 45:10 and Brandon Whistle 104 seconds later put the tie firmly beyond the Devils' reach. Ryan Penny pulled one back for the home side with 8:25 to go, but the Steelers were to hold on for the win.