Brawl bedevils London

The confrontation between Cardiff Devils and London Knights ended with five players ejected at the IceHouse. Cardiff's Ian McIntyre, Frank Evans and Mike Ware were all sent off, along with London's Claude Jutras and Rich Bronilla as the two teams racked up a staggering 282 penalty minutes, 19 short of the Sekonda Superleague record.

The confrontation between Cardiff Devils and London Knights ended with five players ejected at the IceHouse. Cardiff's Ian McIntyre, Frank Evans and Mike Ware were all sent off, along with London's Claude Jutras and Rich Bronilla as the two teams racked up a staggering 282 penalty minutes, 19 short of the Sekonda Superleague record.

The referee, Andy Carson, struggled to keep control, and had to bring an end to the second period - in which 192 penalty minutes were awarded - 75 seconds early as players from both sides slugged it out.

In between the mayhem a game broke out, Cardiff winning 4-2 to claim a seventh successive league victory over London, who suffered a third straight defeat. Alan Schuler and the debutant Kim Ahlroos gave Cardiff a 2-0 lead, only for Jay Neal and Paul Rushforth to haul London level with just over four minutes remaining. However, Vezio Sacratini and a powerplay goal from Schuler, as Knights again ran into penalty trouble late on, finally brought an end to a bad-tempered match.

Sheffield Steelers are now 15 points clear at the top of the table as they staged a remarkable comeback at the TeleWest Arena against the Newcastle Jesters to win 5-4 after penalty shots. Steelers, who could only call on 13 players, including two netminders, due to injuries, were trailing 3-0 inside 15 minutes as the former Sheffield captain, Rob Wilson, Tero Arkiomaa and Eric Fenton piled on the agony. But Jeff Sebastien and Paul Adey reduced the arrears to 3-2 early in the second period, only for Jari Suorsa to open up a two-goal advantage going into the final 20 minutes.

With less than four minutes remaining, Rick Brebant and Adam Smith forced a scoreless overtime period, with Warren Norris credited with the winning penalty shot to clinch a sixth straight victory for coach Mike Blaisdell's team.

Nottingham Panthers were forced into overtime for the second successive evening, but this time were beaten 4-3 at the MEN Arena by Manchester Storm, who move to second. Captain Jamie Leach came up with the equalising marker at 3-3 after netminder Eoin McInerney had been withdrawn, but with Storm on an early powerplay in the extra period, Greg Bullock fired home the winner at 62.24.