Match Report: 21.12.2014 - Stingrays v Steelers EIHL

Sunday 21^st December 2014 – Hull Stingrays (9-11-3) v Sheffield Steelers (18-5-1) @ Hull Arena. Face-off: 6pm, Elite League

Hull Stingrays – 3
Omar Pacha – 2^nd PP
Eric Galbraith – 2^nd
Carl Lauzon – 3^rd

Sheffield Steelers – 4
Colton Fretter – 1^st
Mathieu Roy (2) – 1^st PP, 2^nd
Robert Dowd – 2^nd

Part two of the Yorkshire derby got underway and it was very dominate first session by the visitors as they outshot their hosts 3/1 and David Brown was outstanding as he was the night before as he would save shot after shot but he couldn’t save them all when Sheffield opened the scoring at 7:01 when Sheffield won an offensive zone face-off Baldwin fired one off the draw that was saved by Brown and Fretter picked up the rebound and shot past Brown on the backhand for a 1-0 lead. Sheffield would then gift Hull with a powerplay of their own but they was kept to the edges and long distant shots and couldn’t find a way to level the game but soon after Sheffield had their own powerplay which started off in the right fashion as the Visitors had three great opportunities to extend their lead and when Osman took a hooking call Sheffield went 5v3 for 1:20 but it didn’t take Sheffield that long to score again and it was top point scorer Mathieu Roy who fired a forehanded shot past Brown after Dowd’s shot from the blue line was rebounded out of the pads of the Hull netminder at 13:18 for a 2-0 lead for the visitors. Thomas was called for holding with four minutes left in the period and that was after a coming together on the boards in which Bois received a few punches for his trouble but Hull got to work but was kept to the edges and was struggling to find any shooting lanes but would go into the first break 2-0 down.

End of the 1st Period: Hull Stingrays 0–2 Sheffield Steelers

Shots on Goal: Stingrays 8–25 Steelers

Into the second period Hull made more of a game with it and didn’t lie down and let Sheffield just come at them like they did in the first period. Tanaka and Knox had early chances before Towner shot was saved by the blocker of Doyle, and the biggest chance so far for the home side fell to Knox after Davies from the left wing threw one on goal and Knox couldn’t redirect it past Doyle after the visitors killed another powerplay for the home side they extended their lead as Dowd jumped out of the box he played Mosienko to his left who’s slap shot was saved by Brown and Dowd scored the rebound from the face-off circle for a 3-0 lead at 26:31. Hull missed a golden chance when they broke 2v1 and missed a great chance into the open goal but with the home side on the man advantage Pacha was played the puck to the right of Doyle’s goal and fired his wrist shot straight through the legs of Doyle to put Hull on the board at 30:12, Hull dug in deep and brought the game within one goal at 36:33 after some lazing defending by the Steelers Eric Galbraith brought the puck down and slotted it nicely past Doyle down low and cut the Steelers lead to 3-2. It didn’t take Sheffield long to prevent the comeback when Mathieu Roy scored his second of the night at 38:27 after Roy was in front of goal and he swung at the puck which hit the pads of Brown and trickled into the back of the net for a 4-2 lead and it’s how the period ended leaving Hull with a lot of work to do in the third period.
End of the 2nd Period: Hull Stingrays 2–4 Sheffield Steelers

Shots on Goal: Stingrays 13–14 Steelers

Sheffield dominated the early stages of the third period but couldn’t get another goal on the board after they wasted several decent scoring chances. Sheffield got another power play and almost scored another but Brown saved from Fretter but Eddy soon evened it up. Both teams were really having a go at each other with hit after hit being thrown in and both netminder having a great period but with the clock ticking down Hull pulled another goal back at 46:61 when Tanaka broke down the left hand side before he squared the puck to Carl Lauzon who redirected past Doyle from in front of goal and Sheffield led 4-3 going into the final three minutes of the game but Hull shot themselves in the foot and stopped any chance of getting level when Tanaka took an interference penalty and Sheffield kept their hosts camped in their zone  and didn’t give them the chance to pull Brown for an extra attacker and Sheffield saw out the game with a 4-3 victory which saw the Steelers stay top of the league at Christmas.
Shots on Goal: Stingrays 9–11 Steelers

FINAL SCORE: Hull Stingrays 3–4 Sheffield Steelers

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

Hull           - 2-2-0-0-[8]-{1/7}-30

Sheffield  - 0-2-1-0-[14]-{1/4}-50

Hull Man of the Match: #30 David Brown
Sheffield Man of the Match: #81 Ben O’Connor

Hull Points Round Up: - 8 Points
Omar Pacha (1+0), Cory Tanaka (1+1), Carl Lauzon (1+0), Brendan Jamison (0+1), Matthew Davies (0+1), Zach Hervato (0+1), Eric Galbraith (1+0)

Sheffield Points Round Up: - 12 Points

Gord Baldwin (0+2), Cullen Eddy (0+1), Michael Forney (0+2), Mathieu Roy (2+0), Danny Bois (0+1), Colton Fretter (1+0), Darrell Hay (0+1), Robert Dowd (1+1)

Referee: #26 Dean Smith

Referee:

Linesman: #30 Luke Palmer

Linesman: #36 Phil Sewell

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