What a difference 24 hours makes!! A terrible performance in Nottingham on the Saturday followed by a very convincing 5-1 win against Coventry at the Motorpoint on the Sunday for a two point weekend.
Baldwin and DiCasmirro were back for the Steelers, Legue, Dowd and Thomas sit out, the game however got underway without referee Mike Hicks. The game started without incident with both teams having some good offensive pressure and it wouldn't be till the Steelers third power play opportunity on 12:15 when a defensive mistake allowed Shea Guthrie to skate on through on a breakaway only to beat Doyle on the backhand to give the visitors a one goal lead shorthanded and at the time of the goal Sheffield were struggling to do the simple things right. Coventry wasn't ahead for long when on 14:53 Chris Blight would skate behind the net to pass to Baldwin on the blue line who would fire a snapshot only for Stefan Meyer to tip it past Mike Zacharias for his first of the night. The Blaze would come close to take the lead towards the end of the 1st period when a shot by Steven Chalmers took a deflection of a Steeler onto the crossbar and then just after Frank Doyle would have to glove a Adam Henrich shot wide. Both teams would go into the 1st break all square after a slightly dull first period.
Second period would start and Sheffield would come out firing, with the Steelers on the power play after Shea Guthrie was called for interference Stefan Meyer would score his second of the night on the power play beating Zacharias after passes from Langlais and Kohn on 21:00. Coventry would have a great chance to get back into the game with Hill and Hewitt both in the box it allowed the Blaze with a 5 on 3 power play for just under a minute but Coventry would struggle to set up as the Sheffield penalty kill was very aggressive and stayed in the face of the Coventry forwards continuously, as Sheffield were getting back to full strength the captain Steven Goertzen would lead from the front and lay a big hit down on Tanaka and Sheffield would continue to put pressure on the Coventry goal as DiCasmirro and Hill would both see shots turned away but on 29:07 a great offensive play by Goertzen let Lacroix in to play in Stefan Meyer for his hat-trick goal at the back post to leave Zacharias with no chance and that was quickly followed by a fight between Danny Meyers of all people and Gerome Giudice it was a fight full of a lot of holding but Danny Meyer eventually threw a few big punches on the Coventry man. Coventry wouldn't create much offensively as it was Zacharias who was the more active of the two goaltenders denying three chances from Sheffield but wouldn't be beaten again in the period and Sheffield would take a 3-1 lead into the second intermission.
In a second period that turned out to be fantastic by the Steelers the third period just turned out to be very dominate by the Steelers and on 43:34 Maxime Lacroix would pick up a loose puck to fire a fierce slap shot from the point that beats Zacharias to give Sheffield a 4-1 lead and that was after Stefan Meyer had seen a goal waves off after he tried to go five hole on Zacharias only for the whistle to go and then the puck to trickle loose and over the line. Soon after Zacharias would be thankful after a poor clearance by the Coventry goaltender gave Spencer and Hewitt the opportunity to extend the lead from just in front but wouldn't be able to get past the pads of Zacharias but with Giudice in the box for hooking and Sheffield back on the power play Maxime Lacroix would find space to shoot on goal only for the Coventry netminder to spill a rebound only for Stefan Meyer to tap into the open goal for Sheffield's 5th of the game and his 4th on 49:23. Soon after Lacroix saw his night end early when he received a 2+10 for checking from behind which was followed by the second fight of the night this time between Chris Blight and Steven Chalmers with Blight laying down the law on what happens if you go after his line mate, Coventry would find themselves on the power play their best opportunity fell to Tanaka and Kelsey Wilson but with 43 seconds left in the game Andy Jaszczyk was sent out to replace Frank Doyle in goal for the first time since Sheffield played in Edinburgh back in September during a 10-3 victory, Jaszczyk would see the dying seconds out comfortably and would face one shot that would fly across the face of goal with causing any problem.
FINAL SCORE: Sheffield Steelers 5-1 Coventry Blaze
Boxscore (1st-2nd-3rd-OT-[PIM]-{PP}-S)
Sheffield - 1-2-2-0-[36]-{2/7}-37
Coventry - 1-0-0-0-[30]-{0/5}-27
Sheffield Man of the Match: #10 Stefan Meyer
Coventry Man of the Match: #17 Russell Cowley
Referee: #27 Mike Hicks
Referee:
Linesman: #22 Paul Staniforth
Linesman: #38 Danny Beresford
So Sheffield improve to 22-14-3 and take a 2 point weekend going into Wednesdays Semi-final 1st leg against the Nottingham Panthers where Sheffield will want to get revenge for the loss in Sheffield on Saturday night.
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Tom
@TomWalkeden
@IAmMcCausland
@TomWalkeden
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Keep Supporting The Boys!!
Tom
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