Steelers stay perfect in Cup

Photo: Dean Woolley

Sheffield Steelers logged their eighth straight Challenge Cup win to stay perfect at the top of Group A, beating Manchester Storm 5-3 in front of 7,221 fans at the Utilita Arena.

The Steelers open scoring with a nice interchange of passing between Mark Simpson and Mikko Juusola, finished by the Steelers' centre past Evan Weninger at 3:30. A defensive miscue, however, led to an equaliser for Storm at 13:57 with Ryan Hughes the scorer.

The game's first incident saw Storm's Grant Herbert ejected for Cross-Checking less than three minutes later, and the Steelers took the lead on the resulting powerplay though Daniel Leavens following a scramble in front of Weninger's net inside the final two minutes of the opening period.

An aggressive net drive from Marc-Olivier Vallerand and back door feed saw the Steelers take a 3-1 lead with Brandon Whistle finishing 3:50 into period two. However, Manchester weren't going away and got themselves back into things on a 5-on-3 powerplay goal scored by Joe Morrow at 31:02. Finlay Ulrick put the hosts back two ahead just over three and a half minutes later with a tap in, but the game was brought back to 4-3 at 35:05 when Loren Ulett got on a rebound to a Tyler Hinam shot. Alexis D'Aoust was ejected before the period was over on a Boarding major.

After a busy middle period, the third was a little more straightforward, although the sides split four minor penalties inside the opening eight minutes of the period. Vallerand's goal with 9:31 to play put the Steelers 5-3 ahead and somewhat took the sting out of the game, and they saw out the remainder of the period to secure a 5-3 win.