Sheffield Steelers keep up the pressure on Elite League title rivals Belfast Giants
FOR THE second successive game Sheffield Steelers were pushed hard by Manchester Storm. Once again, the Elite League title hopefuls came out on top.
On Sunday, on home ice, it came in the shape of a 2-1 win over Ryan Finnerty’s team. On Wednesday night in Altrincham, it came courtesy of a 36-shot shutout for goaltender Rok Stojanovic, his efforts providing the foundation for a 3-0 win that took the Steelers to within two points of leaders Belfast Giants with a game in hand and three of their remaining seven games to come against their NorthernIreland rivals.
As for Storm, their failure to make their chances count leaves them four points off a play-off place with just six games remaining.
Tanner Eberle’s first-period goal ultimately proved to be the game-winner. Medric Mercier was caught on the attacking blueline by Eberle who skated the length of the ice to beat Jason Bacashihua for the 1-0 lead at 16.28.
There was little to choose between the two sides in the second period, no goals coming at either end, the drought being broken when Robert Dowd doubled the visitors’ lead at 48.24, finishing nicely on a 2-on-1 break fed through by Vojta Polák.
The Czech then found the empty net with 1.42 remaining to round off a solid win for the Steelers.