The Genting Casino Coventry Blaze were beaten 1-5 by the Sheffield Steelers at Skydome Arena on Sunday night but remain at the top of Challenge Cup Group A with qualification for the semi-finals still in the balance.
Both sides had early powerplay opportunities to open the scoring, but Mat Robson in the Blaze net and Matthew Greenfield for the Steelers were equal to everything thrown their way in the opening stages.
Coventry’s best chance of the first period fell to William Boysen, who was denied by Greenfield on a breakaway.
While short-handed, Sheffield took the lead at 9.17 when Clifford Pu broke free and finished neatly past Robson, assisted by Ryan Tait. The Steelers forward doubled his tally just over two minutes later, converting on a 2-on-1 break from Mikko Juusola’s cross-ice pass – despite protests from the Blaze bench for offside on the play.
Pu completed his natural hat-trick at 12.35, assisted by Stephen Harper, to give the visitors a commanding 0-3 lead after the opening period.
Grant Mismash thought he had pulled one back early in the second, but his effort was ruled out for goaltender interference. The Steelers made it four on the powerplay at 27.54 through Evan Jasper, punishing Blaze after they were unable to convert on four earlier opportunities with the man advantage.
Blaze finally found a breakthrough late in the middle frame, as Mismash got them on the board with 13 seconds remaining, assisted by Alessio Luciani and Sam Ruffin.
A flashpoint arrived at 49.22 when a battle between David Clements and Stephen Harper saw the Sheffield forward assessed a five-minute major and game misconduct for high-sticking. However, despite another extended powerplay opportunity, Blaze were unable to find a way past Greenfield – finishing the night 0-for-6 on the man advantage.
Sheffield rounded off the scoring with a late powerplay goal from Mitchell Balmas to make it 1-5, adding to Blaze’s frustrations with the special teams battle.
The Steelers took the two points to move within one of Blaze at the top of a tightly contested Group A, which now sees just two points separating the top four sides heading into the final games.
Photo credit: Scott Wiggins
