Steelers go top with shutout win

Photo: Dean Wooley

Sheffield Steelers went top of the Elite League with a three-goal, shutout win over Dundee Stars on Sunday afternoon in front of 6,259 fans at the Utilita Arena.

There was action inside the opening 10 seconds with the Stars needing to clear the puck off the line to prevent themselves for falling behind early. IT was a game that started physically, and so it was no surprise when Robert Dowd and James Phelan dropped the gloves with just 8:18 played. Johnny Walker took a needless Holding the Stick penalty after the whistle at 11:59 which set up the Steelers for their first powerplay of the game - Mitchell Balmas needed 35 seconds to one-time a Marc-Olivier Vallerand pass past Kevin Carr to open the scoring. John Nicholls made it 2-2 for the Steelers with the man advantage at 17:58 in a period where Brett Neumann also hit the frame of Carr's goal. Phelan caught Colton Saucerman late with seven seconds left in the period, and the pair came together in the aftermath. Fighting majors were given out, resulting in Phelan being ejected for his second major in the game.

Carr and, at the other end, Matt Greenfield, were the stars of period two, keeping both teams out over the next 20 minutes. The Stars were much better after the restart and came close to getting themselves on the board on a couple of occasions, a puck bobbling about in Greenfield's crease the closest they came to getting back to within one.

Dundee had more chanced to open their account at the beginning of the third period. Ryan Valentini missed the target on a breakaway, while a Chris McKay solo effort also only ended with Greenfield saving. However, with those chances not taken the Steelers made their visitors pay and grabbed a third, Balmas patiently out-waited Carr and threw the puck into the crease to Josh Nicholls to shoot into the empty net through a crowd of players with just over nine minutes to play. Kevin Carr prevented a fourth with an excellent paddle save with 2:23 left on the clock.