British youngsters Alex Graham and Josh Waller were on target as Sheffield Steelers booked their place in the Elite Series playoff finals with an 8-3 victory over Manchester Storm in the second leg.
It secured a 13-7 aggregate success for the Steelers and they will now meet Nottingham Panthers in the best-of-three final, which gets under way on Saturday.
Adrian Saxrud Danielsen (3:15) and Graham (9:52) gave Steelers a great start, while Tanner Eberle made it 3-0 on the powerplay (17:28).
Scott Simmonds’ powerplay marker closed the gap (22:36), but goals from Sondre Olden (27:16) and Waller (31:11) ensured Sheffield were in control at the second intermission.
Tyson Fawcett scored with the man advantage as the Storm grabbed the first goal of the third period (48:31), before Eberle netted short-handed (50:03) for his second of the night.
Fawcett was on target again at 52:00 but Sheffield scored through Olden on the powerplay 47 seconds later (52:47) and Jeremy Beaudry fired in their eighth at 54:14.
Four teams – Coventry Blaze, Manchester Storm, Nottingham Panthers and Sheffield Steelers – are competing in the 2021 Elite Series at the National Ice Centre.
The event has been organised under the government’s Elite Sport Guidance, with regular testing and a full covid-19 protocol in place.
The tournament – supported by Ice Hockey UK – is forming part of Great Britain’s preparations for the upcoming World Championship in Latvia.
All games are available to watch on a live stream – click here for more details and to purchase the webcasts.
Photo credit: Dean Woolley.