Sheffield Steelers vs Glasgow Clan

The Premier Sports sponsored Glasgow Clan were beaten on the road to end a one-point weekend after an early dominant spell of four goals sealed victory at home for the Sheffield Steelers.

The game got off to a slow start with neither side taking real control on the front foot, but the Steelers definetly generating the majority of the chances.

Mitchell Heard’s shot from the top of the zone was deflected through traffic and fell to Brian Diffley who quickly snapped a shot high on net forcing an early save from Lucas Brine in the Clan net.

Matthew Greenfield then made an unbelievable stop as Rylan Schwartz was stripped of possession in front of the crease and the puck bobbled to the backdoor where Cade Neilson forced it to the line and Greenfield jammed his stick in the way at the last gasp during a Sheffield powerplay.

Just moments later though the Steelers took the lead with a powerplay goal from Ryan Tait as he sniped the puck from the slot high over Brine shortly before Robert Dowd doubled their lead with a deceitful deke to the net front and a composed finish.

The hosts then scored a third goal in just two minutes and 19 seconds with Dominic Cormier rifling a shot from the left dot which snuck under the arm of Brine after a pioneering drive through the zones by Heard.

Cormier added a second goal for himself and a fourth for Sheffield before the end of the first period as the Clan started to look lost at sea with the Yorkshire side taking complete control of the game within the opening 20 minutes.

The Clan moved the puck around and performed a lot better in the second period with Tristin Langan and Brett Neumann generating a lot of offensive pressure without much reward.

Greenfield continued to impress much to the frustration of Corey Neilson and the travelling Clan as he denied Deven Sideroff down low before stopping Rob Lachowicz’s immediate rebound attempt as well.

The third period saw more of the same with Sheffield looking happy to see out the game off the back of their early lead by sitting back and not putting too much stress on their players in their only game of the weekend.

Brine was called into action late on as Mitchell Balmas toedragged the puck across the blue paint to the backdoor and backhanded a shot on net but the young British goaltender did brilliantly to dart across his line and keep it out.

The final 20 minutes were fairly uneventful outside of Balmas’ near call though as the third place Steelers cruised through the final stanza to a four-goal victory on home ice at the Utilita Arena.