Blaze beat Steelers, remain only unbeaten team in league play

Photo: Scott Wiggins

Coventry Blaze logged their first regulation time home win over Sheffield Steelers since September 2018 in a highly entertaining 4-2 game at the Skydome, seen by 2,076 fans.

The last time the Steelers were in Coventry they took the lead after just 14 seconds. This time, they were ahead inside two minutes – Marc-Olivier Vallerand finishing from a Robert Dowd pass. The latter’s assist saw the Great Britain international forward draw level with Colin Shields’ all-time points record in the Elite League, and he will no doubt go on to break it in the coming weeks.

Coventry tied the game with a rocket of a one-timer from Brandon Alderson on the powerplay with 6:10 played, although the hosts were lucky to get out of the opening period level after running into some penalty trouble which saw them skate 5-on-3 down inside the final four minutes. Killing both of those off generated some excellent momentum in the arena.

Sheffield went back ahead at 38:37 when a broken play saw Mikko Juusola work the puck to Kevin Tansey for an excellent one-timer past Mat Robson. Two events towards the end of that period would go on to have a big effect on the third, and the game. Daniel Ciampini was ejected on a Cross-Checking penalty that was confirmed on video review with 42 seconds left in the period, and then on the buzzer Brandon Whistle was given a minor for the same offense, meaning the Blaze would start period three on a 5-on-3 advantage.

The home side’s powerplay went to work and came up trumps. Jakob Stridsberg scored his first professional goal with a wrist shot from the point as Kim Tallberg screened Matt Greenfield ar 42:01. 75 seconds later, a Chase Gresock shot took a wild deflection off Brian Diffley’s stick and sailed past a wrong-footed Greenfield to put the Blaze ahead.

With the Steelers chasing the game late, the Blaze broke 2-on-1 and Tallberg set up Zach Heintz for the back-post finish which gave the home side a two-goal advantage. Aaron Fox called his timeout with 1:26 to play, but the Steelers couldn’t find another way past the impressive Robson and the Blaze held on for a league victory that leaves them the only unbeaten team in league play.