Welcome to our match report from last night's game away to the Belfast Giants.
Steelers headed into their game against the Giants in need of an instant bounce back after being shutout at home by Cardiff in midweek. Giants, on the other hand, were looking for a bounce back of their own. Adam Keefe's men had picked up a blank home weekend the weekend previous when they lost to the league's bottom two sides; Edinburgh and Milton Keynes. Steelers showed two changes from the team that lost to Cardiff, Kieran Brown was playing for Blackburn as part of his two-way deal with the NIHL side whilst there was a recall for Zack Fitzgerald as he replaced the injured Jonas Westerling. Giants were without Mark Garside, Jim Vandermeer and David Rutherford.
Needing a better start to the game than they did on Wednesday, Steelers managed it. However, only by 42 seconds as they conceded the opening goal of the game at 1:12. A give and go between Blair Riley and Sebastian Sylvestre saw the Giants captain light the lamp past Ervins Mustukovs. Both teams then started to pick a few penalties, Steelers excellent penalty killers showing why it's head and shoulders above anyone else's in the Elite League with a superb double penalty kill in the closing stages of that opening period.
Steelers needed a response and they got it in the first three and a bit minutes of the middle period. With Giants Jeff Mason sitting an interference minor, the ever impressive Mark Matheson orchestrated another powerplay goal. His pass found fellow defenceman Miika Franssila and whilst Jackson Whistle stopped the Finn's effort, there was nothing he could do to prevent Matt Marquardt burying home the puck for the forward's 25th of the season. A 5 on 3 powerplay chance came in the closing stages of this period, this time for the Giants, but it was the Giants penalty killers who replicated the Steelers' efforts of that in the opening period with a well executed double kill and the teams left the ice after 40 minutes play: locked at 1 goal apiece.
Both teams gave it their all in the final period, racking an astonishing 33 shots between them to leave the shot count at 38 each. However, one of them made all the difference and the destination of the points. It went the way of the Giants. Veteran forward Steve Saviano crashed the net and the puck found its way in. However, Steelers coach Paul Thompson was far from impressed with it as he thought that Saviano had taken out Mustukovs into the net with the puck. The officials didn't agree, and adjudged it was momentum so the goal stood. Mustukovs was sacrificed with 1:46 to go but Steelers couldn't get that all important goal which would have gained them a point minimum and Giants snapped that losing streak whilst extending Steelers' losing one to two games.
Time for the statistics:
Goals: Giants 2 Steelers 1
Steelers Scoring: Marquardt 1+0, Franssila 0+1, Matheson 0+1.
Giants Scoring: Saviano 1+0, Riley 1+0, Sylvestre 0+1, Kurtz 0+1, Raine 0+1, Ferland 0+1.
Shots On Goal: Steelers 38 Giants 38
Powerplay: Steelers 1 from 6 (17% conversion), Giants 0 from 6 (0% conversion)
Penalty Minutes called: Steelers 12 Giants 12
Steelers Goaltender Stats: Mustukovs 36 Saves (1187), GAA: 2.06 (2.35), Save Percentage: 94.70% (91.70%).
Man of the Match: Matt Marquardt (Steelers), Jackson Whistle (Giants)
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