Sheffield Steelers 5 Glasgow Clan 3: Steelers stay top at half way point of season

The home side retained their position at the top of the EIHL but they made hard work of it and came under late pressure, despite leading 5-1 at one stage.

There were some memorable second period goals for the 5,639 fans to remember.

But Robert Dowd ended the night as another injury victim.

Recent results had seen Clan drop from the top of the division to sixth, but while they started off seven points behind Sheffield they have two games in hand.

And they were the first on the scoreboard, Nolan Laporte tapping home seconds after Chad Rau had gone close.

But two Power Play goals put the home side seemingly into cruise control.

First Marco Vallerand equalised and then Anthony DeLuca put away his own rebound off Patrick Killeen for 2-1 at 8:28.

Aaron Brocklehurst and Ben O'Connor had been major influence on the PP units in a vibrant first 10 minutes.

There were some highly creditable penalty-killing, notably from Brendan Connolly before the same player scored short-handed at 18:48.

The first period had been a triumph for Sheffield special teams.

But the second was a triumph for entertainment.

The Arena crowd saw two brilliant Sheffield goals and a brave fightback from the Clan.

Micheal Davies nipped around a marker to score short-side at 25:16.

Just over a minute later a slide-rule pass from DeLuca set up Jonathan Phillips on a breakaway and the captain's forehand shot found the top corner.

Janne Kolehmainen and Nikolai Lemtyugov should have added more.

But the goals that followed were at the opposite end. And they changed the momentum of the match.

Linden Springer first made it 5-2, assisted by Matt Pufahl.

Connolly's temper started to fray and when he was called for tripping, Matt Beca reduced the arrears further, netting Glasgow's 90th league goal of the campaign.

Coach Aaron Fox called a Time Out to refocus his troops.

Goalie Tomas Duba came under intense pressure in the final section of a game they should have put to bed much earlier.

*Steelers play the return leg at Glasgow on Sunday (4.30pm.)