Wednesday 15th January 2014 - Sheffield Steelers (5-3-0) v Dundee Stars (5-3-0) @ Motorpoint Arena. Face off: 7.30pm
The Quarter finals of the Challenge Cup had begun and the Steelers would finish the 1st leg with a 4 goal lead before the second leg is played in Dundee on the the 19th January, the winner of the Steelers and Stars Series will face Nottingham in the Semi-final.
Frank Doyle started the game in goal for the Steelers who had won their last eight games on Sheffield Ice and the always impressive Dan Bakala would start the game in goal for the Stars and the game would start how it ended with Sheffield dominating the majority of the play with DiCasmirro and Phillips trying their luck early against Bakala but the Stars goaltender would stand up big to them but he wouldn't be able to prevent Sheffield scoring their first goal on 2:46 when Stefan Meyer would skate down the left before passing across goal for Legue to shoot into an open goal at the back post that was quickly followed by Dundee's only power play of the whole game when Chad Langlais was given two minutes for interference but Dundee wouldn't be able to find a way through with the man advantage as it would be a comfortable penalty kill by Sheffield. With just over 12 minutes remaining in the 1st period Tim Spencer had a great opportunity to make it 2-0 after a Mark Thomas shot rebounded out to him but he couldn't score into the open goal. Sheffield would then find themselves on the delayed penalty but a trademark Legue slap shot was fantastically caught by Bakala and then Steelers would go on the powerplay which would be their only man advantage of the night as Billy Bagron was called for tripping. Doyle would have quiet first period only facing six shots as Bakala had to be on form to save good shots from Phillips, Hewitt and Meyer. The 1st Period would end with a 1-0 lead for the Steelers.
The Second got underway with Dundee hitting the post before DiCasmirro had a shot deflected high and landed on top of Bakala's net for him to cover the puck up. On 25:02 Drew Fata would pick up the puck on the blue line and would shoot towards goal for Sirianni to tip it between the legs of Dan Bakala. Sheffield would carry on wit the physicality of the game as Thomas would put #8 into the boards and then Dundee's #9 would skate forward and force a great catch out of Frank Doyle which was possibly one of his best saves of the game and then Sheffield would score a strange goal on 31:13 Tim Spencer would shoot a puck in on goal and Jonathan Phillips would shoot it against Bakala and the puck would bounce over him for Hewitt to score into the open goal for his first goal in 19 games. Dundee would try and find a way past Doyle but he either caught them, padded them away or the shot was put high or wide. Then with the clock running down in the second a triple save from Bakala of the shots of Meyers, Sirianni and Meyer was keeping the scoreline down and keeping Dundee in with a shout to try and get back into the game. The last attack of the second session fell to Sheffield when Goertzen skated into the Dundee zone only to see his back hand effort rebounded out too Robert Dowd who also saw his wrist shot saved from the point.
The third got underway with the Steelers up 3-0 but it was Dundee who started the strongest when Doyle was called upon quickly when he had to pad away a goal bound wrist shot. At 40:59 Sheffield had the puck in the net again but was wiped off by referee Tom Darnell after Jeff Legue was deemed to have kicked it past Bakala and that maybe had an effect on Legue he would put a shot wide to the right of Bakala when it looked a certain goal without a defender in sight. A very dominant Steelers team carried on pressing and was eventually rewarded with a fourth goal on 46:18 when Sirianni played it Meyer who was in front of Bakala and coolly put it through the five hole of Dan Bakala. The Home fans were then treated to a Frank Doyle special performed a sprawling save to deny Dundee after trying to round the net, the home fans were soon laughing after Hewitt knocked down his own teammate in Phil Hill. With the clock ticking down on the 1st leg a great play between Meyer and Legue set up Sirianni who turned and forced Bakala into performing a great glove save. Sheffield would see out the remainder of the game and won 4-0 and would then travel to Dundee on Sunday to take on the Stars again in the 2nd leg of the quarter final.
FINAL SCORE: Sheffield Steelers 4-0 Dundee Stars
Boxscore (1st-2nd-3rd-OT-[PIM]-{PP}-S)
Sheffield - 1-2-1-0-[2]-{0/1}-43
Dundee - 0-0-0-0-[2]-{0/1}-21The Quarter finals of the Challenge Cup had begun and the Steelers would finish the 1st leg with a 4 goal lead before the second leg is played in Dundee on the the 19th January, the winner of the Steelers and Stars Series will face Nottingham in the Semi-final.
Frank Doyle started the game in goal for the Steelers who had won their last eight games on Sheffield Ice and the always impressive Dan Bakala would start the game in goal for the Stars and the game would start how it ended with Sheffield dominating the majority of the play with DiCasmirro and Phillips trying their luck early against Bakala but the Stars goaltender would stand up big to them but he wouldn't be able to prevent Sheffield scoring their first goal on 2:46 when Stefan Meyer would skate down the left before passing across goal for Legue to shoot into an open goal at the back post that was quickly followed by Dundee's only power play of the whole game when Chad Langlais was given two minutes for interference but Dundee wouldn't be able to find a way through with the man advantage as it would be a comfortable penalty kill by Sheffield. With just over 12 minutes remaining in the 1st period Tim Spencer had a great opportunity to make it 2-0 after a Mark Thomas shot rebounded out to him but he couldn't score into the open goal. Sheffield would then find themselves on the delayed penalty but a trademark Legue slap shot was fantastically caught by Bakala and then Steelers would go on the powerplay which would be their only man advantage of the night as Billy Bagron was called for tripping. Doyle would have quiet first period only facing six shots as Bakala had to be on form to save good shots from Phillips, Hewitt and Meyer. The 1st Period would end with a 1-0 lead for the Steelers.
The Second got underway with Dundee hitting the post before DiCasmirro had a shot deflected high and landed on top of Bakala's net for him to cover the puck up. On 25:02 Drew Fata would pick up the puck on the blue line and would shoot towards goal for Sirianni to tip it between the legs of Dan Bakala. Sheffield would carry on wit the physicality of the game as Thomas would put #8 into the boards and then Dundee's #9 would skate forward and force a great catch out of Frank Doyle which was possibly one of his best saves of the game and then Sheffield would score a strange goal on 31:13 Tim Spencer would shoot a puck in on goal and Jonathan Phillips would shoot it against Bakala and the puck would bounce over him for Hewitt to score into the open goal for his first goal in 19 games. Dundee would try and find a way past Doyle but he either caught them, padded them away or the shot was put high or wide. Then with the clock running down in the second a triple save from Bakala of the shots of Meyers, Sirianni and Meyer was keeping the scoreline down and keeping Dundee in with a shout to try and get back into the game. The last attack of the second session fell to Sheffield when Goertzen skated into the Dundee zone only to see his back hand effort rebounded out too Robert Dowd who also saw his wrist shot saved from the point.
The third got underway with the Steelers up 3-0 but it was Dundee who started the strongest when Doyle was called upon quickly when he had to pad away a goal bound wrist shot. At 40:59 Sheffield had the puck in the net again but was wiped off by referee Tom Darnell after Jeff Legue was deemed to have kicked it past Bakala and that maybe had an effect on Legue he would put a shot wide to the right of Bakala when it looked a certain goal without a defender in sight. A very dominant Steelers team carried on pressing and was eventually rewarded with a fourth goal on 46:18 when Sirianni played it Meyer who was in front of Bakala and coolly put it through the five hole of Dan Bakala. The Home fans were then treated to a Frank Doyle special performed a sprawling save to deny Dundee after trying to round the net, the home fans were soon laughing after Hewitt knocked down his own teammate in Phil Hill. With the clock ticking down on the 1st leg a great play between Meyer and Legue set up Sirianni who turned and forced Bakala into performing a great glove save. Sheffield would see out the remainder of the game and won 4-0 and would then travel to Dundee on Sunday to take on the Stars again in the 2nd leg of the quarter final.
FINAL SCORE: Sheffield Steelers 4-0 Dundee Stars
Boxscore (1st-2nd-3rd-OT-[PIM]-{PP}-S)
Sheffield - 1-2-1-0-[2]-{0/1}-43
Sheffield Man of the Match: #71 Robert Sirianni
Dundee Man of the Match #39 Dan Bakala
A very dominate performance by the Steelers against 2nd place Dundee and after getting half of the job done taking a four goal lead up to Dundee is always a reassuring thing. Dundee never really looked like threatening all night and besides the four goals the highlight of the night for me was the shutout of Frank Doyle. The victory also took Sheffield to nine unbeaten on Sheffield Ice and the next at the Arena are top of the league Belfast Giants on Saturday evening.
Thanks for reading guys. Any questions or comments please get in contact with the Frozen Steel Team on this article or via Twitter:-
@IAmMcCausland
@TomWalkeden
@AwkwardGinge
@FrozenSteelBlog
or Email the team at frozen.steel.91@gmail.com
Keep Supporting The Boys!!
Tom
@TomWalkeden
A very dominate performance by the Steelers against 2nd place Dundee and after getting half of the job done taking a four goal lead up to Dundee is always a reassuring thing. Dundee never really looked like threatening all night and besides the four goals the highlight of the night for me was the shutout of Frank Doyle. The victory also took Sheffield to nine unbeaten on Sheffield Ice and the next at the Arena are top of the league Belfast Giants on Saturday evening.
Thanks for reading guys. Any questions or comments please get in contact with the Frozen Steel Team on this article or via Twitter:-
@IAmMcCausland
@TomWalkeden
@AwkwardGinge
@FrozenSteelBlog
or Email the team at frozen.steel.91@gmail.com
Keep Supporting The Boys!!
Tom
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