Match Report:18.10.2014 - Steelers v Devils EC/EIHL

Saturday 18^th October 2014 – Sheffield Steelers (4-0-0) v Cardiff Devils (3-3-1) @ Motorpoint Arena. Face-off: 7pm, Erhardt Conference/Elite League

Sheffield Steelers – 5
Colton Fretter PP
Michael Forney
Mathieu Roy PP
Tyler Mosienko
Mathieu Roy

Cardiff Devils – 3
Joey Haddad
Joey Martin PP
Doug Clarkson

Ben Bowns returned to the Motorpoint Arena for league action after leaving last time out with a penalty shootout win in the challenge cup action, Colton Fretter was also making his return from a one game suspension and Ben O’Connor was also making his debut for the Sheffield Steelers after being released from Arlan in Kazakhstan and the fans were in for one hell of a game. The Erhardt conference game started out in a very fast manner as Doyle had to be on his top form to save off Andrew Lord and Trevor Hendrikx but Steelers would create their own offence as Roy almost tipped a Forney shot. It was very end to end stuff with Sheffield killing a Cardiff power play comfortably and then with Sheffield’s third line trying to set up in the zone Cullen Eddy was interfered with twice by Andrew Hotham which Eddy didn’t take to very nicely and the gloves were dropped on 11:59 both would land some nice punches but Eddy would lose his balance and hit the Ice first which sent the Eddy chants flying around the arena but both would receive five minutes for fighting. Mosienko had a golden opportunity to open the scoring when he found himself one on one down the left but somehow shot over but Sheffield would soon be on their own powerplay as Culligan was sent to the box for holding and the Steelers power play unit would get to work and wouldn’t take long to score as Ben O’Connor has possession of the puck in his own zone and played the puck to Colton Fretter on the opposite blue line who fired a bullet of wrist shot in off the post at 16:28. The top line would soon be at it again as O’Connor passed the puck to Fretter at the right hand side and he played to Forney who fired a one timer past Bowns as the Steelers forward found himself completely unmarked at 17:30. A slow start by the Steelers but Eddy got them going with his fight and Sheffield take a 2-0 lead into the break.

End of the 1st Period: Sheffield Steelers 2–0 Cardiff Devils

Shots on Goal: Steelers 9-8 Devils

Second period got underway and Cardiff were looking to get back into the game as #93 would fire one against the pipes and would very soon have a goal waved off as they was on the penalty kill the Devils would breakaway 2 on 1 and would force a save out of Doyle before scoring the rebound but referee Michael Hicks would say no goal and wave it off as it was deemed that there was either a man in the crease or goalkeeper interference so the Steelers still led the game 2-0 but almost straight after in the next attack or two Cardiff did pull it back to 2-1 when a very nicely played 1-2 between Haddad and Chris Culligan allowed Haddad to shoot into the open goal on 26:26. There was soon an interesting incident against boards involving Sheffield’s Mark Thomas and Cardiff’s Trevor Hendrikx with a bit of pushing and shoving the Devils player was the only person to drop his glove and try laying it into the Thomas yet the Steelers defenceman didn’t retaliate and I thought it was a 10 minute misconduct for illegal equipment but he received nothing so the game went on with both teams looking to create some offence as Fretter missed a golden chance to bat the puck out of the air but couldn’t connect with the puck shortly followed by Frank Doyle making a fantastic save as Jake Morissette found himself on the breakaway as both teams were starting to get very physical with each other like it already had been all game. With Mosienko in the box Cardiff went on the power play and it didn’t take them long to level the game when on 33:59 Joey Martin assisted by Brent Walton fired one from in between the circles to level the game at 2-2. But neither team would find a way to take the lead and would both go into the 2^nd break all tied at 2-2.
End of the 2nd Period: Sheffield Steelers 2–2 Cardiff Devils

Shots on Goal: Steelers 5–12 Devils

For not the first time this season Sheffield had a very good first period, a poor second period so in normal Steeler fashion this season the fans expected another good period and it’s what they got as Sheffield found themselves on an early 5 on 3 powerplay as Cardiff has Joey Haddad and Tyson Marsh in the box the Steelers got to work and it didn’t take them long as Sheffield showed some fantastic passing play as Phillips passed from the left of Ben Bowns’s goal as Mathieu Roy saw his first attempt saved before lifting his second effort over Bowns and into the back of the net to give Sheffield a 3-2 lead at 42:16. Penalties were being thrown around left right from centre as Hendrikx was showing a particular dirty side tonight but Sheffield wouldn’t be able to make a different powerplay count and Cardiff would make them pay on 48:44 when Chris Jones forced a great pad save by Frank Doyle only for the puck to drop for Doug Clarkson to shoot a backhanded shot past Doyle to level the game at 3-3. Cardiff’s discipline was costing them tonight and soon found themselves on another 5 on 3 penalty kill but luckily for them the Steelers seemed to be passing it a little too much and not shooting on goal enough and would be able to kill it but then up stepped that guy Tyler Mosienko when on 54:39 the Steelers forward scoring Sheffield’s fourth goal after Jonathan Phillips shot a slap shot from the left of Bowns only for the Cardiff netminder to pop a rebound out in front for Mosienko to fire a wrist shot from the point which left Bowns with no chance. On 56:24 the fans were treated to a second fight this time between Clarkson and Kohn which also turned out to be the Devils 17^th fight of the season already so I’ve been told but with the clock ticking down on the clock Ben Bowns was pulled for the extra attacker and on 59:25 Mathieu Roy was on the breakaway with an empty goal to shoot out but was brought down by a Cardiff player now usually it would be a penalty shot but as there was no goalkeeper referee Roy Hanson from Norway awarded an automatic unassisted goal for Mathieu Roy which gave the Steelers a 5-3 score line which they saw off to take the win only to travel to Cardiff the following day for part two of the weekend. But on the buzzer there was some nasty scenes which saw Sheffield’s Cullen Eddy and Tyler Mosienko involved and Cardiff’s Trevor Hendrikx and Andrew Lord involved for sure as there was a line brawl which saw a coming together against the boards in which Cullen Eddy and Jesse Mychan had dropped the gloves and were then both given a game misconduct and then Trevor Hendrikx would receive a match penalty after a coming together with Mosienko in which the Steelers forward didn’t retaliate so no doubt DOPS will be busy after this.
Shots on Goal: Steelers 10–11 Devils

FINAL SCORE: Sheffield Steelers 5–3 Cardiff Devils

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

Sheffield - 2-0-3-0-[41]-{2/7}-24

Cardiff    - 0-2-1-0-[76]-{1/2}-31

Sheffield Man of the Match: #81 Ben O’Connor
Cardiff Man of the Match: #27 Joey Haddad

Sheffield Points Round Up:- 13 Points
Frank Doyle (0+1), Cullen Eddy (0+1), Michael Forney (1+0), Mathieu Roy (2+0), Jay Latulippe (0+1), Jonathan Phillips (0+2), Tyler Mosienko (1+0), Colton Fretter (1+1), Ben O’Connor (0+2)

Cardiff Points Round Up:- 8 Points

Chris Jones (0+1), Brent Walton (0+2), Joey Haddad (1+1), Chris Culligan (0+1), Joey Martin (1+0), Doug Clarkson (1+0)

Referee: #27 Mike Hicks

Referee: #49 Roy Hanson

Linesman: #25 Andy Dalton

Linesman: #30 Howard Dahl

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Let's Go Steelers!

Tom
@TomWalkeden
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