Welcome to our match report from last night's game against the Fife Flyers.
After losing a controversial game in Belfast on the Saturday night, Steelers headed into Sunday's game at the House Of Steel looking to arrest a two-game losing skid. It was an unchanged team for the Steelers which meant Zack Fitzgerald started for the second successive game, and on the wing. Flyers, who had overcome Nottingham on a penalty shot triumph, arrived in Sheffield with an injury hit roster. Todd Dutiaume's side were missing imports Ian Young, Dan Correale, Evan Bloodoff, former Steeler Brady Ramsay and Danick Gauthier as well as Brit Reece Cochrane. Starting netminder Andy Iles passed a late test and began the game despite concerns he would not finish it.
Steelers had conceded very early in their last two games, but it only took them 42 seconds to open the scoring. Matt Marquardt firing home his 26th goal of the season with a well taken wrist shot that Iles never got close to. Just over 30 seconds later Iles' night was over as he was replaced by Jordan Marr; the netminder showing his anger at being replaced but it was confirmed it was the injury which caused Dutiaume to make such an early decision. It became 2-0 midway through the period, Ben O'Connor flashing home a shot from the blue line which fizzed past Marr. It was Ben's 16th of the season. People were already thinking how many Steelers would rack up, and after failing to convert when offered a 5 on 3 powerplay, Steelers did make it 3-0 before the end of the period. Colton Fretter skating in on Marr and finishing consummately for his 15th of the season, goal timed at 16:23.
The onslaught continued into the middle period with Marr doing well to keep out as many efforts as he could. However, this period was less than three and a half minutes old when Steelers added a fourth on the night. Finnish defenceman Miika Franssila with a backhanded effort that evaded Marr for his second goal as a Steeler. Exactly two minutes later Steelers had gone nap, Mathieu Roy this time being the man on target with another backhand effort. Mathieu's 24th of the campaign. It was enough for Dutiaume as the Flyers coach called a timeout straight after this goal as he tried to stop the haemorrhaging and get his beleaguered troops some respite. Flyers had chances but they were finding Steelers not forgiving in defence and hungry in attack. A sixth goal came at 31:16, Liam Kirk was onto a loose puck and he homed in on Marr before dispatching his 8th goal of the season past him. Still there was time for more, and Flyers night was getting worse as they conceded a shorthanded effort for the Steelers seventh. With Cole Shudra sitting an interference minor, Steelers fashioned out a move and Fretter was on hand to score his second of the evening and goal number 16 this season.
By the time the third period began, Steelers had given Ervins Mustukovs the rest of the night off after the Latvian had saved all 15 shots that Flyers had put on him; Brad Day taking the cage for the final 20 minutes to big cheers. However less than a minute into this final period, the small band of Flyers fans had something cheer about as defenceman James Issacs fired a low shot beyond Day to break the double shutout which your correspondent here had inadvertently mentioned. Yet Steelers still wanted to add more goals but Marr was intent on not letting the goal tally reaching double figures. The final goal did come the Steelers way at 51:34, a rare goal from Tim Wallace when a Marr rebound landed at the forward's feet. It was only a 6th goal of the season for Tim but a first league goal in two months. No further scoring ensued afterwards, and Steelers enjoyed a routine 8-1 win: a result which saw them leapfrog their opponents into 4th.
Time for the statistics:
Goals: Steelers 8 Flyers 1
Steelers Scoring: O'Connor 1+3. Roy 1+2, Fretter 2+0, Kirk 1+1, Nelson 0+2, Franssila 1+0, Wallace 1+0, Marquardt 1+0, Aarssen 0+1, Valdix 0+1, Matheson 0+1, Shudra 0+1, Fitzgerald 0+1, Neiley 0+1.
Flyers Scoring: Issacs 1+0, Mosey 0+1, Schaber 0+1.
Shots On Goal: Steelers 46 Flyers 24
Powerplay: Steelers 0 from 3 (0% conversion), Flyers 0 from 6 (0% conversion)
Penalty Minutes called: Steelers 14 Flyers 8
Steelers Goaltender Stats: Mustukovs 15 Saves (1202), GAA: o.00 (2.31), Save Percentage: 100.00% (91.80%). Day 8 Saves (27), GAA: 3.00 (2.27), Save Percentage: 88.90% (93.10%).
Man of the Match: Ben O'Connor (Steelers), James Issacs (Flyers)
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