Friday 26th December 2014 – Sheffield
Steelers (19-5-1) v Nottingham Panthers (13-7-4) @ Motorpoint Arena. Face-off: 4pm,
Erhardt Conference/Elite League
Sheffield
Steelers – 0
Nottingham Panthers – 4
Steven Lee – 1st
Chris Higgins – 2nd PP
Chris Lawrence – 3rd ENG SHG
Greg Jacina – 3rd
Nottingham Panthers – 4
Steven Lee – 1st
Chris Higgins – 2nd PP
Chris Lawrence – 3rd ENG SHG
Greg Jacina – 3rd
An almost sold out Motorpoint arena to host the boxing day fixture between the Steelers and the Panthers and the game got underway with Darnell an Hicks in the middle. It’s not hard to say Steelers wasn’t at their best tonight and the better team won and Nottingham came with a game plan and it worked for them all night. Panthers got the first power play of the night and got set up early and couldn’t get the puck past Doyle and not long after Sheffield was back to full strength the visitors took the lead on 9:27 when Benedict was in possession behind Doyle’s goal and he fed Lee at the top of the right hand face-off circle and the defenceman shot straight through the 5 hole of Doyle for a 1-0 lead. The fans were then treated to a fight after Berube was found roughing up Dowd it forced the Steelers forward to retaliate and was able to lay a few punches on the Nottingham man after putting him on his back something that the Nottingham man didn’t take lightly but Sheffield ended up on the penalty kill when it looked for sure it was going to be 4v4 but Berube got away with an instigator penalty. Sheffield worked hard but as they would soon find themselves on the man advantage and Kohn found his one timer blocked and Roy couldn’t get his shot away from in front, It was then time for Legue to try and make an impact but his slap shot from the left hand side went wide and then Hill had a great chance to level the game with the help of Roy and Legue his backhanded shot just went wide. With the clock ticking down Dowd finally came out the box and as he got back to the bench he received a cross check from Robert Farmer which caused everyone to jump in after the penalties were dished out Sheffield ended the first period on the man advantage but was still a goal down.
End of the 1st Period: Sheffield Steelers 0–1 Nottingham
Panthers
Shots on Goal: Steelers 4-10 Panthers
Sheffield started the second period on the man advantage still looking to get back into the game and it was Colton Fretter who worked hard to get in front of goal but his shot deflected out to O’Connor who shot just wide of the goal. Both teams then exchanged penalties for a further few minutes and with Nottingham on the man advantage a decision by the officials changed the entire game and it was Forney who got through on goal on the breakaway and he was hooked back by Landry and Forney hit the deck but the delayed penalty was on the Steelers man which angered the entire arena and straight away Nottingham broke and Higgins made it 2-0 to the left of Doyle when the former Giants man shot over the shoulder of Doyle at 29:18 which brought Bois out of the box and the officials still through Forney in for slashing which no one could work out when it looked for sure the Steelers should have had a penalty shot or a power play. Into the last couple of minutes of the period Eddy shot high over the goal as the Steelers broke 3v2 and then O’Connor worked hard on the boards and he fed Forney across the face off goal but he missed the puck and fell over and the Panthers broke 3v1 but could only shoot high and wide themselves, was a great chance for Forney to get the Steelers back into the game but Sheffield were going into the break 2-0 down.
End of the 2nd Period: Sheffield Steelers 0–2 Nottingham Panthers
Shots on Goal: Steelers 12–10 Panthers
Third period got underway and Sheffield were struggling to create offence as they kept on running into brick walls as the Nottingham defence just stood up to them brilliantly and Modig had everything else under control, Nottingham were unlucky not to be 3-0 up when Chris Lawrence was denied from in front after beating two Steelers with two toe drags Doyle ate the shot in his body. Forney had some fantastic chances to score in this game and any other night he’d had finished them and it was Forney who tipped into the pads of Modig and the rebound was just too far for Kohn to reach and then Panthers broke 2v1 after a big hit by Baldwin on Mosey but O’Connor slid down low to deny Nottingham with the tip of his stick. Going into the final two minutes of the game Steelers found themselves on the man advantage and Doyle was pulled for the extra attacker and then Dowd fired two snap shots agonisingly wide of the goal but at 59:59 Lawrence made it 3-0 when he shot the puck from his own zone into the empty net but it got even worse for the league leaders at 59:47 when Jacina jumped out of the penalty box and went down the left hand side before firing a snap shot of the shoulder of Doyle from in front for 4-0. That was how it finished and Nottingham took two valuable points home with them and both teams having to do it all over again on Saturday night at the NIC with the Steelers looking for some revenge.
Shots on Goal: Steelers 7–9 Panthers
FINAL SCORE: Sheffield Steelers 0–4 Nottingham
Panthers
Boxscore (1st-2nd-3rd-OT-[PIM]-{PP}-S)
Sheffield - 0-0-0-0-[17]-{0/6}-23
Nottingham - 1-1-2-0-[19]-{1/5}-29
Sheffield Man of the Match: #81 Ben O’Connor
Nottingham Man of the Match: #25 Mattias Modig
Sheffield Points Round Up: - 0 Points
Nottingham Points Round Up: - 10 Points
Robert Lachowicz (0+1),
Evan Mosey (0+1), Chris Lawrence (1+0), Robert Farmer (0+1), Brandon Benedict
(0+1), Greg Jacina (1+0), Steven Lee (1+0), Cody Wild (0+1), Chris Higgins
(1+0), Jonathan Boxill (0+1)
Referee: #9 Tom Darnell
Referee: #9 Tom Darnell
Referee: #27 Mike Hicks
Linesman: #14 James Kavanagh
Linesman: #22 Paul Staniforth
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