Steelers hit back with home win

Photo: Dean Woolley

Sheffield Steelers have still yet to lose two games in a row this season, responding to Saturday's defeat in Cardiff with a 4-1/home win over Coventry Blaze on Sunday afternoon. 

Mitchell Balmas opened the scoring at 3:38 with a wrist shot that beat Taran Kozun low on an early powerplay. Coventry grew into the game well and had most of their opportunities come from the Roth-McNulty-Kristo line that got in behind the Steelers defense a couple of times. The period ended with just that Balmas goal separating the teams.

45 seconds into the second, Mikko Juusola doubled the home side's lead, but the Steelers took a series of penalties for shooting the puck out of bounds which led to Johnny Curran's shot in the slot getting Coventry on the board during a 5-on-3. It was a period littered with penalties, but Coventry took two late, despite starting on a man-advantage themselves, which came back to haunt them - Marc-Olivier Vallerand netting on the 4-on-3 with 32 seconds left in the period.

Coventry were handed a powerplay early in period three but were punished the other way as Brett Neumann scored shorthanded at 45:05 to put the home side three ahead, and all-but end the visitors' hopes of a comeback. 

The Steelers almost added a fifth but were denied by the final buzzer sounding seconds before.