Panthers Win Final Visit To Sheffield: (EIHL) Match Report

Sunday 23rd February 2013 - Sheffield Steelers (24-14-4) v Nottingham Panthers (21-15-6) @ Motorpoint Arena. Face off: 5pm

Nottingham Panthers final visit to the Motorpoint in the elite league for the season and would leave with both points after an empty net goal would secure the 3-1 win against Sheffield.

Frank Doyle and Craig Kowalski were in goal for their respective teams, Mark Thomas and Steven Goertzen were still out injured but were both on the bench, Tom Darnell was announced as ref with a big cheer by the crowd and the game got underway. The 1st period started pretty even with good opportunities falling to both teams when DiCasmirro would put his effort wide and after some good skating by D man Dustin Kohn he played in Lacroix who saw his shot padded wide by Kowalski, Leigh Salters would receive the puck and break down the left to pass to Lachowicz who shot from just in front of goal to form a fantastic save out of Frank Doyle to keep the scores level. Stefan Meyer would see a golden chance go missing as Tim Spencer would take a shot from the blue only for the puck to drop to the stick of Meyer but couldn't put the puck over the pad of Kowalski for him to only cover up. Doyle would be next to give Nottingham a goal scoring chance as he would give Nottingham an open goal to shoot at only for Baldwin to deny them, Nottingham would get the first power play of the night as Lacroix was called two minutes for hooking and it would be a strong penalty kill. When Sheffield were back to full strength Legue skated coast to coast only to see his back hand effort go wide but on 10:19 Baldwin played to Spencer who fired a snapshot from the blue line for Robert Dowd to tip past Kowalski for the 1st goal of the game. There would be a coming together between Jason Hewitt and Robert Farmer next to the benches after a slash by the Nottingham forward that would see the two drop the gloves with Farmer getting the first set of punches in followed by Hewitt landing some big ones on Farmer on 14:14, Sheffield wouldn't be able to make the power play count and as Nottingham got back to full strength Lynn Loyns would skate into the Sheffield zone firing a wrist shot past Doyle to level the score at 1-1 on 16:18. Both teams would go into the break all square as Lacroix saw the final shot of the period meet the glove of Kowalski.
End of the 1st Period: Sheffield Steelers 1-1 Nottingham Panthers

There would be a delayed start to the second period as we was awaiting the return of the Nottingham Panthers back onto the Ice as they seem to take there time, Once underway Gord Baldwin would have the first shot of the session only to see his attempt covered up by Kowalski but just over two minutes into the period Lynn Loyns would play to Leigh Salters who would skate behind the goal and score on the wrap around to give Nottingham a 2-1 lead. Sheffield would soon be defending again very quickly as Panthers would go for goal again only for Drew Fata to clear the puck off the line. Nottingham would get a power play opportunity with Phil Hill in the box and it would be a very dominate power play with Sheffield struggling to get hold of the puck and clear the zone until eventually Nate DiCasmirro finds himself on the breakaway only to be taken down and awarded a penalty shot, DiCasmirro would be the taker and would see Kowalski save his penalty shot. There would be chances at either end with both goaltenders handling the shots comfortably, Sheffield would have a power play but Kohn would have to defend well to deny a short handed Nottingham but a good opportunity fell to Legue who saw his shot saved and rebound out to Blight who saw his shot covered up.
End of the 2nd Period: Sheffield Steelers 1-2 Nottingham Panthers

Third and final period got underway and Kowalski was almost caught out of his crease when he was too slow returning but Sheffield somehow couldn't get a shot of into the empty net, Fata would shoot from the blue line before Kalus had the opportunity to break only to see his shot go straight into the body of Kowalski. There was a big goal line scramble where Kowalski was beaten with several Sheffield players around the crease the puck somehow didn't cross the line. Petr Kalus would skate himself onto a breakaway but couldn't get past Kalus then again it would be Kalus causing problems when Doyle had to dive out of his crease to poke check to puck away. On 59:10 with Lynn Loyns in the box for tripping and Sheffield on the power play they pulled Doyle on 58:58 so it was 6 on 4 for Sheffield but Kalus would skate down the right beating Legue to play to Farmer who backhanded it into the empty net.

FINAL SCORE: Sheffield Steelers 1-3 Nottingham Panthers

Boxscore (1st-2nd-3rd-OT-[PIM]-{PP}-S)
Sheffield      - 1-0-0-0-[11]-{0/5}-25
Nottingham - 1-1-1-0-[15]-{0/3}-24

Sheffield Man of the Match: #75 Robert Dowd
Nottingham Man of the Match: #24 Leigh Salters

Referee: #9 Tom Darnell
Referee:
Linesman: #31 Ally Flockhart
Linesman: #23 Lee Young

A hard one to take, a good team performance did everything right but just couldn't get what they deserved and on a rare occasion I saw the disappointment in Goertzen face as he was stood outside the changing rooms after the game and just the look on his face showed how much this means to him and even though its been a tough season it made me even more proud to be a Steeler fan. Next up for the Steelers is the final game with Nottingham at the NIC on Saturday followed by a game live on premier sports at home to Cardiff on the Sunday.

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