Steelers survive another Flyers scare

Photo: Dean Woolley

Sheffield Steelers survived a scare by Fife Flyers for the second straight game as they claimed a 7-4 victory at Utilita Arena in front of 6,682 spectators.

Two goals in the opening four minutes looked to have put the Steelers in complete control of this game, but good resilience from the Flyers saw things all tied after 20 minutes. Patrick Walting's wrist shot beat Shane Owen with 121 seconds played, leading to thousands of bears to be thrown onto the ice. At 3:46, Dominic Cormier shot deflected off Colin Shirley's face and past his own goalie into the net. The Steelers could have been further ahead but were pegged back to 2-1 by Anthon Eriksson coming in unchecked in the slot and converting a neat reverse pass from Max Humitz. After the home side missed a couple of excellent chances on a Sean Giles Hooking minor, Lucas Chiodo was also untracked in the offensive zone and beat Matt Greenfield  high off Shirley's pass to tie the game at 16:25.

Fife shocked the home crowd by taking the lead early in period two through a big slapshot from Vitalijs Pavlovs that beat Greenfield five-hole to quieten the arena, and it was a key stick lift by the Latvian that stopped Brandon Whistle tying the game a couple of shifts later.. Robert Dowd levelled for the hosts just over three minutes later with a shot that deflected behind Owen off Kyle Osterberg's stick, and then Daniel Ciampini was on hand to poke home a loose puck at 28:58 to put the Steelers back into the lead. 

The Steelers moved 5-3 ahead when Fife were called for two minors on the same play - Owen for Tripping and Humitz Holding. Having nearly seen off the 5-on-3, Brett Neumann tipped Patrick Walting's shot with five seconds left of the two-man advantage top ut the hosts back two ahead. Anthony Eriksson fed Lucas Chiodo for a well-taken odd-man rush goal two minutes later to again pull the Flyers back to within one, but the visitors were undone on a powerplay as Giles struggled to keep the puck in the zone, and Mark Simpson raced away to feed Brandon Whistle for the finish on a 2-on-0 shorthanded rush. Simpson added a late empty netter as the Flyers took Owen out to complete a 7-4 win.