Steelers take commanding first-leg lead in Playoff QFs

Photo: Hayley Roberts

Sheffield Steelers will have a five-goal aggregate lead to play with on Sunday in Kirkcaldy after beating Fife Flyers 9-4 in their 2024 Playoffs Quarter-Final first leg on Friday night.

Vitalijs Pavlovs should have put the Flyers ahead with one of the game’s first attacks, being found in front but unable to slot past Matt Greenfield from close range with only some 30 seconds played. Indeed, the Flyers created the better of the chances in the opening phases before the hosts gradually grew into the game.

Mitchell Balmas’s curl and drag brought Owen into a smart save, with the Flyers’ goalie also making an excellent pad save to keep the game scoreless. The deadlock was broken thanks to an excellent Niklas Nevalainen pass across the Flyers zone to Balmas who one-timed under Owen’s arm with 10:40 played. Fife were unlucky to be behind and after a couple of tip attempts were deservedly level – Troy Lajeunesse’s one-timer from the circle off Kyle Osterberg’s feed tied things up at 17:14.

2:58 into period two, Cole Shudra beat Owen five-hole from an angle to put the hosts back ahead, one the Flyers goalie would certainly want back. On the very next shift, Shudra then rang a shot off the iron, and the home side were rewarded for going up a gear as Balmas slapped home a Daniel Ciampini pass only 80 seconds later. Tom Coolen opted not to call his timeout but his team needed to steady the ship – they did so, and were rewarded with a top-shelf Maz Humitz finish in the slot at 29:33 of an excellent Teemu Pulkinen pass behind the net.

Patient and impressive stick handling from Josh Nicholls behind Owen's net eventually set up Shudra for his second of the night with Finley Ulrick screening the Flyers' goalie. Balmas could have made it a hat trick but was denied by Owen on a breakaway. The hosts then moved three ahead when Owen was knocked over by Kevin Wehrs bundling a Steeler into his own goalie, and with the netminder down Sam Jones slotted into the gaping net.

Brandon Whistle took a pass from Mark Simpson that she shot past Owen to put the Steelers four goals ahead inside the opening two minutes of the final period. Nicholls beat out an icing call to set up Mikko Juusola 65 seconds later as the Finn to make it a 7-2 scoreline with more than 17 minutes still left to play. The Flyers needed something and with 11:53 to go they almost got it – but Max Humitz couldn’t beat Greenfield on the breakaway. On the next play, however, Humitz got on a loose puck and went bar down to put a third on the board for Fife.

The Flyers needed to keep themselves no more than four behind until the game was over, but Marc-Olivier Vallerand’s 100th goal for the Yorkshire side at 50:36 re-established the home side’s five-goal advantage. Nicholls saw a shot come back off the inside of Owen’s post with just over six minutes to play as things threatened to get better for the Steelers. Owen stopped Balmas from completing a hat trick for a second time late on, before a scramble in front of Greenfield saw Colin Shirley shovel the puck over the line to make it 8-4 with 2:40 left. Brett Neumann pounced on a bad giveaway in the Flyers end to get the Steelers back five ahead 27 seconds later.

Fife have an uphill task to overturn a four-goal differential against the league and cup champions who have only conceded five in a single game twice this season.