Match Report: 15.10.2014 - Steelers v Stars EIHL

Wednesday 15^th October 2014 – Sheffield Steelers (3-0-0) v Dundee Stars (1-5-1) @ Motorpoint Arena. Face-off: 7.30pm, Elite League

Sheffield Steelers – 6
Rodney Sarich
Gord Baldwin
Mathieu Roy PP
Jonathan Phillips PP
Tyler Mosienko
Jay Latulippe EN

Dundee Stars – 3
John Mitchell
Rob Ricci
Matt Ryan PP

Dundee Stars were the visitors for the first league game in Sheffield in just under a month Frank Doyle would be in goal for the Steelers with Marc Cheverie in the opposite goal it would be an extremely slow start to the game by the Steelers when after just 22 seconds Dundee opened the scoring when some neat fore-checking prevent Steelers from clearing their zone and Stars top scorer John Mitchell was able to slot the puck under Doyle from just in front but they wouldn’t be ahead for long when Jonathan Phillips would be in possession of the puck at the boards to the left of goal before passing to Sarich in front of goal who would coolly slotting past Cheverie on 1:30, Steelers were having a lot of possession of the puck in the Dundee zone and were dominating a lot of the play and if it wasn’t for Marc Cheverie in the Dundee goal the game could have been out of sight. Both teams had power plays but neither were successful in fact Dundee seemed to be of their game a little as their passing was lack lustre and Sheffield seemed to think that the win would come easy to them but Dundee had fight and was up for this game and on 15:50 they re-took the lead probably against the run of play when some good skating by former Steeler Chris Blight led him to passing the puck along the face of goal for Rob Ricci to slot it over the shoulder of Doyle for a 2-1 score line  for the visitors and for his 3^rd of the season, it wasn’t looking good for Sheffield and Doyle who hadn’t seen much rubber and seem to have conceded two goals to only a handful of shots but it was thanks to the Sheffield netminder that the score was still 2-1 when he managed to get his blocker to the back hand of Cingel before denying McKenzie with the leg pads but Dundee would take a 2-1 lead into the break.

End of the 1st Period: Sheffield Steelers 1–2 Dundee Stars

Shots on Goal: Steelers 10-7 Stars

Dundee started the second session brightly as they was gifted a soft power play as Mark Thomas was called for elbows and were lucky not to be 3-1 down as Darrell Hay made two fantastic blocks to deny Stars especially the second one as Doyle was beaten out of his goal and struggling to get back but Sheffield would kill the penalty but simple mistakes were gifting Dundee with opportunities but they overcome that and on 26:39 Jonathan Phillips sent in a backhanded pass for Gord Baldwin to finish off at the back post to level the score line which was also Baldwin’s 5^th goal of the season. Dundee would soon be on a 5 on 3 power play but some fantastic penalty killing by not only the PK units but especially Doyle kept the scores level and would soon get their own powerplay after a dangerous hit by Mitchell on Hay against the boards saw the Dundee man in the box for two minutes and it didn’t take Sheffield long to strike as Dustin Kohn fired a wrist shot from the blue line which was fantastically tipped by Mathieu Roy past Marc Cheverie at 29:42. It was now Dundee’s turn to try and find an equaliser and came ever so close if it wasn’t for two great saves by Doyle firstly of Chris Blight before getting back in goal to glove down Liimatainen shot away from danger. With just under four minutes left in the period as Hutchins was called for his second penalty of the game and Sheffield went to work and it was some excellent skating by Kohn down the left to carefully tee up Jonathan Phillips for 4-2 score line and Phillips 400^th EIHL point at 37:18 but with the clock ticking down Latulippe was thrown in the box for roughing and after a smart 1-2 Matt Ryan fired a one timer slap shot from in between the circles past Frank Doyle to bring the Stars within one goal at 39:06 but Sheffield was able to take a 4-3 lead into the break.
End of the 2nd Period: Sheffield Steelers 4–3 Dundee Stars

Shots on Goal: Steelers 6–13 Stars

Third period got underway and it seemed to be a more relaxed period for the home side as they let their skill take over as they played a good passing game circling well in the zone and getting in the face of the Stars players and not giving them a moment to think on the puck the physical side of the game was still coming out but it wasn’t all one way traffic and Doyle had to stand up tall to a few efforts but on 46:24 Jay Latulippe played a nice cross Ice pass to Mosienko in the neutral zone who skated into the Dundee zone and in between the circle before firing a rocket of a wrist shot past Marc Cheverie for his 5^th goal in 7 games. The game seemed to fizzle out and seemed to be missing some kind of spark as it just seemed to be missing enthusiasm but Stars wasn’t giving up and as Kohn for given 2+2 for high sticks the Stars had an opportunity but the Sheffield penalty kill went from strength to strength and wasn’t giving Dundee any easy opportunities on 58:07 Marc Cheverie was pulled for an extra attacker and almost found a fourth goal as Matt Ryan saw his shot saved by Doyle from the point but a poor Stars turnover saw Jonathan Phillips pick up the loose puck before playing a cross ice pass to Jay Latulippe who did the rest and slotted the puck into the empty net at 59:18 to give the Steelers a 6-3 win.
Shots on Goal: Steelers 11–8 Stars

FINAL SCORE: Sheffield Steelers 6–3 Dundee Stars

Boxscore (1st-2nd-3rd-OT-[PIM]-{PP}-S)

Sheffield - 1-3-2-0-[16]-{2/4}-27

Dundee  - 2-1-0-0-[8]-{1/7}-28

Sheffield Man of the Match: #20 Jonathan Phillips
Dundee Man of the Match: #12 Chris Blight

Sheffield Points Round Up:- 18 Points
Gord Baldwin (1+1), Mathieu Roy (1+0), Jason Hewitt (0+1), Jay Latulippe (1+2), Rodney Sarich (1+0), Jonathan Phillips (1+3), Tyler Mosienko (1+2), Dustin Kohn (0+3)

Dundee Points Round Up:- 9 Points

Chris Blight (0+2), John Dolan (0+1), Matt Ryan (1+1), John Mitchell (1+1), Martin Cingel (0+1), Rob Ricci (1+0)

Referee: #9 Tom Darnell

Referee:

Linesman: #14 James Kavanagh

Linesman: #38 Danny Beresford

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Tom
@TomWalkeden
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