REPORT: Owls 2-1 Blackburn
The Owls beat Blackburn by the odd goal in three to post their third successive win in the race for promotion.
And it was defender Vincent Sasso who proved the unlikely hero, scoring two first half goals to seal the points for the hosts.
Sam Hutchinson put through his own goal in between but Lady Luck looked back at the Owls late on as Hope Akpan was dismissed after seeing what would have been an equaliser chalked off for an infringement.
After an incident-free opening that gave little indication of the drama to follow, the game exploded into life just after the 15-minute mark.
First Ross Wallace thumped a wicked free kick against the crossbar, then from the Owls’ next set piece moments later, they took the lead.
Barry Bannan swung a delicious feed to the far post, where Sasso escaped his marker to finish with some aplomb on the volley.
But the advantage lasted less than two minutes as Rovers forged an immediate route back into the contest, albeit with a slice of fortune.
A corner found its way to Danny Graham, whose effort from close range took a wicked deflection off Hutchinson to trickle agonisingly past Keiren Westwood.
Back to type the contest went with neither side creating anything of note and just as it seemed the teams would head into half time level, Wednesday restored their lead.
Wallace was the architect this time, curling a super corner right into the mix that the advancing Sasso nodded into the back of the net.
The Owls introduced Fernando Forestieri for the start of the second half and Steven Fletcher ten minutes in but openings were few.
The same was true at the other end, with the nearest breakthrough on 75 minutes when Forestieri netted only to see a flag raised for offside.
The Italian then forced Jason Steele into a diving save as the clocked ticked down and Rovers responded with twin efforts from Marvin Emnes and Liam Feeney, to which the commanding Westwood was equal.
Then with six minutes to go, the game ended in fiery fashion to say the least. Emnes hit a thunderbolt that bounced back into play off the underside of the crossbar before Akpan eventually had the ball in the net only for the referee to rule the strike out for handball.
Akpan appeared to take his protests too far and was shown a straight red card to leave Blackburn with a mountain to climb – and the Owls duly held out to tighten their grip on sixth place.
Wednesday: Westwood, Hunt, Sasso, Loovens, Fox (Forestieri 46), Wallace, Hutchinson (Jones 72), Bannan, Reach, Winnall (Fletcher 56), Rhodes