ROUND-UP Steelers sink Stars

DUNDEE Stars travelled to Sheffield with six players missing through injury and suffered an 8-2 defeat at the hands of the Yorkshire side.

With only 50 seconds gone, Stars had an early powerplay opportunity when Sheffield’s Levi Nelson was awarded two minutes for tripping but they failed to take advantage of the extra man.

In five minutes, the visitors were hit with two goals in 17 seconds.

Andreas Valdix opened the scoring then Andre Deveaux made it two.

However, Dundee responded two minutes later with a counter from Taylor Dicken.

Ben O’Connor struck to give the home side a 3-1 lead.

In 23 minutes, Steelers increased their lead with a goal from Nelson. Seven minutes later, Andreas Jamtin made it 5-1.

Jonathan Phillips netted No 6 for Steelers going into the final session.

Malcolm Gould pulled a goal back for Dundee then Stars player-coach Omar Pacha received a two-minute penalty for hooking. On the resultant powerplay, Robert Dowd netted to make it 7-2. With 50 seconds left, Scott Aarssen round off the scoring.

Pacha said: “It was always going to be a big ask with so many out injured.

“In the second period we competed well but made a mistake. Against a team like Sheffield you won’t get away with that and we didn’t.

“Our younger players got excellent ice time and that is good experience for them but Gabriel Levesque was hurt and we will have to assess him before the weekend’s matches.”