Sheffield Steelers 4-2 London Racers

Sheffield posted their fourth win on the bounce with in-form Mark Dutiaume helping himself to two goals and an assist. Racers were not helped by a penalty strewn middle period including separate misconduct penalties to Nathan Rempel and Duncan Dalmao.

5834 saw Dutiaume open Steelers account on a delayed penalty call against Racers' Mark Gouett for hooking (11:33). Rod Sarich found Dutiaume and a mazey skate ended with a back-hand finish from close-in.

That tied the scores and 2 goals in 97 seconds put the home side in control. With Dennis Maxwell sitting a slashing penalty, Kent Simpson converted a rebound as Steeelers forwards almost queued up to force the loose puck past Ladislav Kudrna (16:53). Then Dutiaume pulled a superb move to round the London defence before firing a screamer across Kudrna from the left wing (18:00).

It had all started so differently for London who netted straight from the face-off after Paul Sample took a hooking penalty inside the first minute. Jeremy Cornish got the deflection on Dalmao's shot from the right point after Trevor Baker won the draw (00:41).

Sheffield then started to take control and four powerplays certainly made life a little easier for them.

The middle session opened with Jason Norrie forcing Jody Lehman to make a stop at full stretch, before Sheffield again started to boss the game. Baker and Sarich dropped the gloves for 2 minutes fighting each, with Baker getting an extra 2 minutes for instigation. 91 seconds later Maxwell took a penalty and Rempel took a misconduct for abuse at the same time.

Before Baker returned Norrie took a roughing penalty and Andrew Luciuk lifted home a rebound on the powerplay (31:10).

London kept plugging away, with Maxwell in particular making Lehman earn his money.

With Martin Massa sitting a minor, Simpson broke away and Maxwell was obliged to haul him back, taking a hooking penalty in the process. But Dalmao joined him in the box with a misconduct.

Both sides played their back-up goalies in the final period. London failed to take advantage of the solitary penalty on Jonas Lennartsson, but a wicked deflection from Maxwell's left wing shot saw them round out the scoring (52:30).