Coventry Blaze Head Coach Danny Stewart admitted he was delighted with his team’s 4-1 victory at Sheffield Steelers on Saturday.

The result moved Blaze up to seventh in the Elite League standings and boosted their hopes of securing a spot in the end-of-season play-offs.

Although the Steelers appeared to have one eye on Sunday’s Challenge Cup final, Stewart praised his players for the way they set about their opponents.

“I’m very happy with the result and the performance – we knew that even though they had a big game on Sunday that they’d come out skating, and they did,” said Stewart.

“The first period they had a couple of powerplays early and they put us under pressure and Stewy (Brian Stewart) made some good saves.

“But I thought we cleared second pucks well – they did get a lot of shots, but many were from the outside and then the second and third we picked up our pace.

“That third period, I can’t remember in the last couple of months us having as smart and as solid of a period as that.”

(Image permission: Dean Woolley)