Fife Flyers hit for five by Sheffield

An explosive third period helped the home side to a commanding first leg lead after Flyers had kept the deficit to one for large parts of the game.

Steelers began on the front foot and after Robert Dowd struck the crossbar, he was on hand to convert at the second time of asking on the powerplay at 9:16 in what would prove to be the only goal through nearly 48 minutes, and the visitors once again had Shane Owen to thank for pulling off a string of fine saves to keep his team in the tie.

After a goalless middle stanza, the final period burst into life with four goals in under eight minutes turning the tide in the hosts favour.

Firstly Matias Sointu had a simple tap-in at 47:56 to double Steelers lead to two, before Evan Mosey added a third on 50:26.

Flyers got a goal back following a fortunate bounce off a Craig Peacock shot that fell kindly to Michael McNicholas who slotted home on the doorstep for his third goal in as many games at 53.56 to give some hope to the visitors of getting back into the game.

However, they capitulated on the very next shift after the puck was turned over by Dowd and he broke to fire home on 55:13 and 14 seconds later Vojta Polak was on hand to capitalise on a rebound to round off the evenings scoring to take a four-goal lead into the second leg at Fife Ice Arena next Wednesday (Face-Off 19.30)