Steelers Almost Stung - Steelers 6-3 Stingrays (CC - 8/10/14)

(C) Dean Woolley Photography

An inspired MOTM performance from Luke Ferrara saw the Steelers survive a nightmare second period and take home the 2 Challenge Cup points with a 6-3 win over a tough Hull Stingrays - losing another body in the process.


Mathieu Roy gave the Steelers the lead at 3:47 after some good early Steelers domination, before 2 goals in 30 seconds. Hull equalised through Eric Galbraith, before Ferrara scored his first for the club 23 seconds later, beating David Brown despite the goalie getting something on it.

Halfway through the period, Mark Thomas left the ice after being slashed off the puck. He was later taken to hospital for an x-ray on a suspected wrist injury.

In truth, the Steelers should have been home and hosed at the end of the first, with a mixture of crossbar and inspired goaltending from Brown stopping it from easily being 6-1 at the buzzer.

Thus followed a terrible second period, where only Tyler Mosienko (who can feel aggrieved to have not received man of the match) turned up, with Hull reaching every puck first and working a very good road game to deservedly take the lead - a powerful Jordan Mayer shot was followed by a tip in front by Matt Larke.

Any chances the Steelers had in the second were thwarted by the superbly ridiculous Brown - he's a great shot stopper but looks susceptible when worked. The best save came from a chance from Ferrara, who must have thought he had his second if not for a top-drawer save from Brown.

The Steelers clearly like shooting towards the gallery end of Ice Sheffield though, and duly turned on the style in the third.

Gord Baldwin, who was back to his best Bambi impression earlier in the game, took a page out of the Gretsky playbook to deliver a superb equaliser in the 44th minute. This was followed up by a Mike Forney goal after some lovely work on a 5-on-3 powerplay.

Mosienko scored his third goal in three games with a shot from distance which seemed to surprise Brown, and Jason Hewitt wrapped up the scoring late on with a tap in after some good work by Phil Hill.

Ferrara was deserving of the MOTM, although as I said above, Mosienko would have edged it for me. Tyler's workrate is immense, and the comparisons between him and Stefan Meyer are obvious.

For Ferrara though, it was the second good performance for the Steelers in two games. He impressed with his workrate on Saturday, and tonight he was good value for his goal - hard work, good stick work and with an eye for goal.

Cory Tanaka took the honour for the Stingrays, and he was indeed the standout of the "outfield" skaters. The similarity between he and his brother Cale is natural, but they both play the same style of game and both do it well. Brown made some superb saves though and probably doesn't deserve the 6 goals against.

We need to learn not to switch off. In previous games, we've taken late penalties that have cost us, tonight it was stepping off the pedal in the second. Whatever G said in the locker room during the second period break clearly worked, but it would be nice if he didn't have to say it.

Tom will have his more in-depth game report on Friday, just in time for you to read ahead of the weekend's fixtures.

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