Mat Robson celebrated his second consecutive shutout on the Utilita Enviornment in Sheffield, stopping all 40 photographs he confronted as Coventry Blaze skated away with a 2-0 victory over the Steelers.
“I had each emotion potential coming in right here tonight,” mentioned Colton Saucerman, who confronted the Steelers for the primary time since becoming a member of Coventry in the summertime. “I wished to win this recreation, nevertheless it feels bizarre profitable right here towards Sheffield. It was emotional at the beginning however as soon as the sport began I settled in.”
A goalless opening interval wasn’t with out probabilities in Sheffield. Each side got here by penalty kills to maintain the sport scoreless, whereas Stephen Harper got here closest to breaking the impasse inside the ultimate minute of the interval however noticed his effort come again off the within of Robson’s put up.
“It was a tough recreation, we thought we dominated the play however ran right into a scorching goalie,” mentioned Kyle Watson, who made his EIHL debut for the Steelers after rising up as a boyhood fan of the group. “My first recreation right here was once I was about two weeks previous, so it was a very long time coming to make my debut for this group. However when the puck drops you need to concentrate on the sport. I attempted to play robust and preserve it easy, and I felt assured on the market.”
Coventry created the higher probabilities to start interval two and have been deservedly forward simply over seven minutes in. A damaged stick because the Blaze broke 2-on-1 put the puck into the trail of Archie Hazeldine, who roofed it into Matt Greenfield’s high nook.
Having seen the Steelers begin the third interval on the assault, the Blaze broke and doubled their lead when Jack Hopkins performed the puck throughout the crease for Kim Tallberg to fit dwelling previous a helpless Greenfield 2:33 into the ultimate body.
Sheffield pushed for a purpose however simply couldn’t discover a well past Robson. On the different finish, the Blaze have been solely a deflection away from scoring on the empty internet however held on to have fun a superb win.
“It’s a really powerful constructing to return and play in, nevertheless it was an enormous and vital recreation to maintain us transferring up within the Cup standings,” concluded Saucerman. “We got here in and simply tried to play arduous, and Robson stood on his head.”
