Steelers move into second with perfect weekend

Photo: Sheffield Steelers

Sheffield Steelers ended the week second overall thanks to a 3-0 win over Cardiff Devils, completing a four-point weekend for Aaron Fox’s team.

Matt Greenfield logged his third shutout of the season in the Steelers’ net.

Two early goals gave the Steelers the lead through 20 minutes. Robert Dowd opened the scoring at 3:47 when a rebound from a Dominic Cormier shot landed perfectly on his stick in the slot. Just under two minutes later, Cormier shot from a tight angle and found a gap on Bowns at his near post to make it 2-0 with 5:26 played.

It could have been three had it not been for a Bowns save on a Mark Simpson shot as the home side broke 3-on-2.

The Devils hit the iron twice in what was a flat opening period. Joey Martin came through the centre of the slot to hit the crossbar shortly after they’d fallen two behind, while on one of the final plays of the period it was Ryan Barrow finding the outside of Matt Greenfield’s left post. Reid Duke through 1-on-0 was the other chance of note for the visitors to get back into things.

Sheffield looked the more likely team to add to the scoring early in period two, but having weathered that storm the Devils began to push themselves.’

The league’s leading point scorer, Josh MacDonald, had two golden chances to get the Devils back into things as the period drew to a close. Greenfield out-waited him to force MacDonald into hitting the side netting when through 1-on-0, and was then set-up for a back post one-timer which was saved by Greenfield. Tyler Busch saw a shot deflected over in another excellent chance for the visitors.

Cardiff had the better of most of the third period but without a final product. Jarrod Gourley hit another post as the visitors tired to get back into the game, while Greenfield was alert to bouncing puck to glove it down before Martin could slot it home.

That failure to score came back to bite the visitors as a neat interchange saw Patrick Watling deflect Daniel Ciampini's excellent feed past Bowns to wrap things up with 5:34 to play. Mikko Juusola was awarded a penalty shot with 62 seconds remaining, but a Bowns glove save kept the score at 3-0.

The loss was the Devils’ third in a row, and saw them drop to fourth in the league.