Sheffield Steelers scored early and often, and led for nearly the game’s entirety on the way to a one sided 9-0 win over the visiting Flames.
It took just 49 seconds for Steelers to jump in front thanks to Joona Huttula, and only a few minutes later added another from Brandon Whistle. He followed up again before the halfway point of the frame when he scored shorthanded to make it a 3 goal spread they held into the middle set.
89 seconds into the 2nd, Steelers widened the gap further through Mitchell Balmas and they cruised to the final frame enjoying the 4 goal cushion.
Like the other periods, Steelers jumped on Flames early again, converting a powerplay 26 seconds after re-start; this one a Kevin Tansey re-direct. Sacha Guimond made the most of another powerplay in the 46th minute and Cole Shudra had another at even strength seconds later. Ivan Bjorkly Nordstrom with about 5 minute left made it 8 and Whistle completed his hat trick 23 seconds from time.
Jake Kupsky made 23 saves on 32 shots while Matt Greenfield for Steelers was 25 for 25 and Curtis Warburton 3 for 3 in the shared shutout.
“What can be said about a game like that?’ asked Head Coach Paul Dixon. “First few seconds pretty much summed up how things would go,” said Paul Dixon.
“They took the lead right away then had a very big spread 8,9 minutes in and it was uphill from there through the night.”
“They have a skilled team and they created a high number of very high grade good scoring chances most of which found a way in tonight.”
“We don’t like being on the wrong end of that, but it happens on occasion, and we will all have to deal with it. It’s the kind of game where you burn the footage and start right away looking at the next chance which is Sunday at Glasgow and that is what we are going to do.”
