PAUL Thompson came home to haunt his former club after his Sheffield Steelers side claimed a 4-0 victory over Coventry Blaze in the Challenge Cup on Sunday night.
Blaze legend Thompson made an emotional return to Skydome as new head coach of Sheffield after a spell away in Sweden with Troja-Ljungby before a stint in charge of Aalborg Pirates in Denmark.
The hosts fell behind when Tyler Mosienko gave last season’s losing finalists the lead in the 13th minutes.
A Colton Fretter breakaway doubled Steelers’ lead on 24 minutes with Mathieu Roy (41.28) and Levi Nelson (59.27 empty-net) adding further goals.
Steelers netminder Tyler Plante posted a 25-save shut-out as Blaze were blanked for the second time this season.
“It showed we are not up to their level of conditioning, I thought they controlled the pace in the third period,” said Blaze head coach Chuck Weber.
“We got off to a decent start but the first goal was a crazy bounce, the second was a breakaway, there was a two-on-one and an empty-netter.
“We had some chances which could have been momentum-changers, I thought our penalty kill was OK and on the powerplay we did not have enough net-front presence.
“Thommo takes pride in his team’s work ethic and conditioning. They play at a high tempo and have been playing at a very high pace against some of the best teams in Europe.
“It is a disappointing we don’t have a second game this weekend to bounce back but we will regroup and go back to work.”
