Steelers extend lead at top of table

Photo: Dean Woolley

Sheffield Steelers responded to Saturday's to Belfast by putting six past the Giants on Sunday afternoon, again making sure that they have still yet to lose back-to-back games this season.

On Saturday night the Giants played most of the game with a lead on the way to their win, but on Sunday afternoon it was the Steelers who came out of the blocks flying to lead early. Daniel Ciampini scored in close after just 28 seconds, followed by Mitchell Balmas in the slot after 65 seconds, both after the Giants failed to clear their zone and turned the puck over. Adam Keefe called his timeout to re-organise his team, which did stop the flow of goals against.

Matt McLeod got on a stretch pass to score at 11:03 as the Giants pulled themselves back to within one, but some 90 seconds later a Mikko Juusola throw to the net bounced off Tyler Beskorowany into the path of Robert Dowd to make it 3-1 at 12:41. Mitchell Balmas slotted home at the far post off a deflection with 62 seconds left in the period to put themselves 4-1 ahead.

Those two goals by the Steelers certainly took the sting out of the game head into the middle period which ended scoreless. The Giants had a late powerplay to halve the arrears but a couple of drop passes to no one on the offensive blue line cost them time and possession.

Beskorowany was busy in period three as he pulled off a string of saves to keep the Steelers to just four goals on the night. Scott Allen scored the goal of the game with a between-the-legs finish with his back to Beskorowany’s net to round off the scoring with 4:56 to play, while Marc-Olivier Vallerand fired home a powerplay goal 50 seconds later as the Steelers extended their lead to 6-1.

The Steelers went back to an 11-point lead at the top of the table with the win with 10 games to play.