Sheffield Steelers' Mitchell Balmas lighting up the Elite League in first two weeks
MITCHELL BALMAS may have taken the plaudits after firing a hat-trick in Sheffield Steelers’ 6-1 Elite League win at Glasgow Clan – but his biggest concern was ensuring his team started their regular season campaign the right way.
Balmas’ exploits north of the border on Sunday capped a fine weekend for him personally, having already scored twice in the previous day’s 3-2 win in overtime in the Challenge Cup against Nottingham Panthers.
It took the 28-year-old Canadian’s tally for the season so far to seven goals in all - from just four games. Given he has been the team’s top goalscorer for all three seasons he has been in South Yorkshire, it would take a brave person to bet against him extending that run by another year.
“It’s always nice to be able to contribute to the team and help out,” said Balmas. “But at the end of the day, the individual stuff is secondary.
“Four points is what I’m most happy about and now we’re going to look to keep moving forward.
“The important thing was getting the two points and starting the league season the right way.”
The Steelers – unbeaten across four games so far this season – face a quick turnaround when they head to Guildford Flames on Wednesday night for their second league game.
The Flames beat both Nottingham and Cardiff Devils in the Cup at the weekend, while the Steelers will hope to repeat the win they achieved eight days ago at The Spectrum when they beat the Flames 5-4 after a shootout in the Cup. Not surprisingly, it was Balmas who provided the winning touch then.
After Balmas fired the Steelers into a 2-0 lead inside eight minutes in Glasgow, Dominic Cormier piled on the agony for the home team when he made it 3-0 at 14.51.
Ryan Tait - overtime hero of the previous night’s Cup win over the Panthers - made it 4-0 just 86 seconds into the second period before Balmas completed his hat-trick just over seven minutes later.
Veteran centre Sean Collins opened his account for the season when he made it 6-0 at 45.05, the only disappointment coming four minutes later when Matt Greenfield’s hopes of a shutout were ruined after Alex Forbes finally got the Clan on the board.