The reigning Treble champion Sheffield Steelers scored a couple of 2nd period goals to break open a 1-1 tie on their way to a 4-1 win over the visiting Flames in Challenge Cup action.
The visitors killed a 3 on 5 penalty situation before Robert Dowd put the home team in the lead thanks to his strike at 17:23. A Flames reply shortly after was waved off after video review and the 1 goal difference remained on the board to start the 2nd.
Ethan Strang’s marker in the 28th minute levelled, but an unanswered pair by Mark Simpson at 33:02 and Dominic Cormier on the powerplay 63 seconds from period time had Steelers in command before their final tally at 45:28 from Patrick Watling.
Eamon McAdam made 29 saves on 33 shots while Matt Greenfield for Sheffield was 17 for 18.
“They have so many guys back from their championship team last season that you certainly don’t go in there wondering what they will be like,” admitted Paul Dixon.
“They do a lot of good things as a unit in both ends of the rink and they made it difficult for us to generate a lot of higher end opportunities.”
“Having said that, we didn’t help ourselves with our penalty situation. We killed penalties 2 men down a handful of times, so certainly we have to clean that up especially when you are playing a highly talented team like Steelers.”
“From the point we tied it up in the 2nd, I thought we had some moments there where it looked like we might be the team to jump in front. It was not a situation where we were entirely overwhelmed all night so we can take some things from that game to help move us forward. Hopefully Sunday against Panthers we can find our way around the net a bit more and put up a win.”
