Sheffield Steelers 1OT2 Cardiff Devils

Cardiff missing Ed Patterson, John Cullen and Rob Davison, suspended following his match penalty last night.

3253 fans witnessed Sheffield's new defenceman Dave Cousineau make his home debut and his second man of the match award in two games. But Dave Matsos bagged an unlikely win for the depleted Devils firing past Jayme Platt from the left wing with Cardiff's only shot of overtime (62:57). Nobody could deny Devils worked hard for this one, showing a discipline in defence that was not evident before Dave Whistle took over as coach last season.

This was Sheffield's first home loss in 11 and brought their 7 game unbeaten streak to an end.

Once again Sheffield dominated a game in terms of chances, but Jason Cugnet kept making the saves whilst his defence cleaned up the loose pucks. Daryl Andrews arrived straight off the bench to force a great stop after 10 minutes, but two minutes later Russ Romaniuk charged down a clearance at the Sheffield end and fired home from the left wing (12:12). Just over 6 minutes later Platt was unable to hold Vezio Sacratini's shot was but the puck fell away from the goal.

Cardiff came out the stronger at the start of the second. Dave Matsos created havoc at Platt's right post, Platt twice making a save before Dave Cousineau marked his home debut by sliding in behind his goalie to clear off the line.

Two minutes later Steelers were level when Jeff Christian charged down a clearance and stepped up unchallenged to rifle home low to Cugnet's left (28:57). Sheffield then really stepped up the pressure with shots raining in on the Cardiff goal. But Cugnet and his defence kept the puck, though once they needed the aid of a post.

The final period was much quieter in terms of chances. Gerad Adams almost got on the end of rebound, but tellingly most of the shots that did get through came from Sheffield's third line of Ben Bliss, Marc Lefebvre and Paul Sample.

Regulation time ended with a too many men call on Sheffield and to everyone's surprise, overtime commenced with a 5-on-4 powerplay. Sheffield killed off the penalty fairly comfortably and the teams continued 5-on-5 with Adams twice coming very close to notching a winner. But that distinction fell to Matsos wiht the teams still 5-on-5 and Devils stole a rare win on Sheffield ice.