18 Mar 2023, 19:00 | Regular season | Sheffield Arena |
Sheffield Steelers | 4-1 | Nottingham Panthers |
Periods: Shots: | 1-0 (18-10) | 0-0 (10-4) | 3-1 (10-9) | Total: 38-23 |
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Referees: Liam Sewell/Truswell  |  Spectators: 7916 |
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Goals and assists
Sheffield Steelers completed a regular season sweep over Nottingham
Panthers with their sixth win out of six league fixtures against their
rivals, thanks to a 4-1 victory in front of almost 8,000 fans at the
Utilita Arena. The Steelers have won nine straight against the Panthers
this season.
The Steelers, in their white retro jerseys, got the
perfect start to the game off some bad defense from the Panthers which
allowed a 2-on-1 break that set Matt Petgrave through on Alex Dubeau.
The Panthers goalie prevented the Steelers defenseman from scoring, but
Scott Allen followed up to put the loose puck home from the crease. Matt
Greenfield's glove save across his crease to deny David Levin was the
closest the Panthers came to drawing level, but it was Dubeau who was
the busier of the goalies as he produced a string of saves to keep the
hosts at just one goal.
Period two was scoreless but not for the
want of either side trying. The Steelers were dangerous on a couple of
powerplays, while at the other end Jakub Ižacký hit the post with
Greenfield screened. Greenfield again came up with an important save,
this time with his blocker, off a Niko Lahtinen shot, with Alex Dubeau
diving across his crease to stop a Robert Dowd slapshot. The visitors
failed to capitalise on a 2-on-1 chance in the closing stages of the
second as the score stayed unchanged.
An early third period goal
made things more comfortable for the hosts. Kevin Schulze found the top
corner of Dubeau's net 49 seconds into period three to double his team's
advantage. Allen netted his second of the game off an excellent
Petgrave pass 22 seconds later to make it 3-0. In a crazy opening to the
period, Jeremy Welsh hit one back for the Panthers with 1:22 on the
period clock.
Nottingham two took penalties in the final five
minutes of the game giving Sheffield a 5-on-3 advantage, and Daniel
Ciampini punished them with the game's final goal at 57:48.