By Stuart Hughes BBC Sport Online

Belfast keeper Bach was a busy man

Sheffield Steelers posted a record-breaking ninth game without defeat by beating Belfast Giants 3-2 at the House of Steel on Wednesday evening.

Sheffield had the best of the early chances but Kory Karlander fired a simple pass across Steelers goalie Joel Laing to take a surprise lead at 08:10.

Mark Dutiaume jumped onto a loose puck to level less than two minutes later and in the 13th minute Jeff Brown (powerplay) buried the puck from the top of the left face-off circle to put Steelers ahead.

Giants out-shot Sheffield 9-6 in the middle period but at 22:34 Kent Simpson sent a shot through Ryan Bach's pads to make it 3-1.

Belfast tightened the screws in the third and six minutes from time Doug MacDonald capitalised on a loose puck to get Belfast back in the game.

However, despite pulling goalie Bach 40 seconds before the buzzer, Belfast could not draw level.