Clan win fourth straight, defeat Steelers

Photo: Dean Woolley

Glasgow Clan shocked the 7,683-strong crowd at the Utilita Arena with a well-earned 2-1 win over Sheffield Steelers.

An early breakaway from Patrick Watling brought Landon Bow into a good early save as the Steelers started fast at home again. A little against the run of pay. Cole Ully and Liam Finlay combined to set up Tyson McLellan to finish over Matt Greenfield's glove and put the Clan ahead with 7:06 played.

Lucas Brine entered the net with Bow appearing injured just over ten minutes into the period, and the guys in front of him responded with the better of the latter half of the period, keeping the Steelers back in their own zone for large phases.

After a back and forth start to the second period, Clan doubled their lead. A looping backhand shot from Simon Despres beat Greenfield to make it 2-0 at 29:03. Just over four minutes later the Steelers hit back - Daniel Leavans used the pass option of Brandon Whistle as a distaction and fired over Brine's glove hand to make it a one-goal game again at 33:07 - cue thousands of bears being thrown onto the ice, quite a sight!

The Steelers had some sustained pressure in the final stages of the period, but Clan did well to collapse around Brine to keep the shooting lanes busy.

In the third, the Steelers were the more threatening team but didn't look as dangerous as they had done during Wednesday's 9-0 thrashing of Guildford Flames. Brine was forced into a couple of decent glove saves, but he saw almost every show put on him. At the other end, Greenfield denied Ully putting the Clan back two ahead as the game entered the final five minutes.

Greenfield was pulled with a minute to go but to no avail, and the Clan held on for an excellent win - and then survived another two seconds that was reset on the clock to celebrate their victory again.