Pre-Season action between the Steelers and the Clan at Ice Sheffield in the Holiday Inn Cup
Saturday - Sheffield Steelers 4-0 Braehead Clan
Wearing their retro white jerseys Steelers ran out comfortable winners in their first pre-season game in preparation for the Champions Hockey League games. Tyler Plante recorded a shut-out on his debut for the Steelers and his opposite number was left out to dry at times but both netminders did have to be called upon several times to make fantastic saves.
Steelers took the lead around the mid-way stage of the first period when assisted by Mathieu Roy and Tyler Mosienko it was Colton Fretter who scored the first goal of the season when ripped a shot high past Chris Holt in between the pipes for the Clan to make it 1-0. Braehead then had a big 5 on 3 power play with their best opportunity's falling to ex NHLer Ric Jackman as he fired two big slap shots straight at Plante who held onto them comfortably. Sheffield would return to full strength and go on the man advantage themselves and Levi Nelson scored his first goal for the club assisted by Mike Duco and Robert Dowd as he fired a sweet shot over the blocker of Chris Holt to make it 2-0.
After a goalless second period Clan came into the third period trying to get back into the game and had a golden opportunity to get back into the goal but Tyler Plante made an outstanding back door leg save when a goal would have brought Braehead back into it. Steelers made it 3-0 at 49:29 when Luke Ferrara shot a back handed shot past Holt assisted by Hewitt and Moyer after the Clan goalkeeper gave up a rebound. With just under 8 minutes left in the game Roy and Coyle were in the box and Clan had a second 5 on 3 but Tyler Plante just continued to make the big saves and with four seconds left on the clock after some fantastic work by Robert Dowd it was down to Levi Nelson who dragged the puck nicely and fired a back handed effort past Holt for his second of the night and 4-0 score line for the Steelers.
It was a comfortable 4-0 win for the home side but the two sides meet again less than 24 hours later. Tyler Plante took the man of the match award for the Steelers and had to do the "Eddy" and ex Steelers Stefan Meyer received the award for Braehead.
Sunday - Sheffield Steelers 3-3 Braehead Clan (Steelers Win 7-3 on Aggregate)
Game two of the weekend, both teams un-changed in their final preparation for the Champions Hockey League that begins on Thursday. It was a goalless 1st period with the highlight being Fitzgerald dishing out the money to his former fans after being jeered by them, a real character the former Clan man that's for sure. Wasn't much to really talk about during the 1st period both Tyler Plante and Chris Holt stood up tall and made some fantastic saves.
Braehead had a lightning start to the second period scoring two in quick succession first it Braehead's Alex Leavitt who nicely tipped within a minute past Tyler Plante who has been solid for 80 minutes of hockey so far. Then not more than a minute later a poor defensive mistake by Steelers let in Stefan Meyer who didn't hesitate and slotted low past Plante. It was then old Mr Reliable Jeff Legue who stepped in to bring the Steelers within one goal as he skated down the left and sniped his shot low past the left pad of Chris Holt to break the Clans shut-out. Clan would restore their two goal lead when Scott Pitt played a nice pass to Ben Davies who slotted low past Plante and Braehead was able to take a two goal lead into the 2nd intermission.
Into the third period and again it was the battle of the goalies as they both had outstanding performances and Scott Pitt had a great chance for the Clan but his slap shot come back off the crossbar and then Bari McKenzie was called for a penalty and within 10 seconds of the power play Mathieu Roy brought the Steelers within one goal when Roy placed a nicely back handed goal past Holt as well as receiving a cross check from Aarssen for his troubles but that's what he made a living on last year. With the clock ticking down and into the final two minutes just as Tyler Plante was being pulled O'Connor fired a shot from the blue line and it was brilliantly tipped by Mike Duco to level the score at 3-3 and that's how it finished and Steelers won the Holiday Inn Cup 7-3 on Aggregate.
Chris Holt took the man of the match award for the Clan and Mike Duco was given the award for the Steelers. Next up for both teams is the CHL and it's going to be one hell of an experience and lets show Europe what we can do. Good Luck to both teams next week.
Thanks for reading guys. If you want to get involved please contact us on twitter or find us on Facebook and like us and leave a comment:-
@FrozenSteelBlog
@TomWalkeden
@FrozenSteelMNL
@hockeybhoy
Check out the Frozen Steel Podcast
Check out the Frozen Steel Match Night Talk Show
Or Email the team at frozen.steel.91@gmail.com
No comments:
Post a Comment