Last
night the Steelers played their first game of the season in the House Of Steel,
and with it the raising of the Play Off Champions 2017 banner. Whilst the main
talking points were the poor state of the ice and the chaos of the new
“security measures” which took an absolute age to resolve and meant that face
off was delayed by 30 minutes; Steelers and their visitors Manchester Storm entertained
an 8,000 crowd taking advantage of the special £5 ticket promotion gleefully
whilst lapping up some excellent pre-entertainment from talented local singer
Kyle Tomlinson.
Both
teams were not at full strength. Steelers were missing both John Armstrong and
Matt Marquardt which meant a complete reshuffle of the third and fourth lines;
but giving increased ice time to promising talents Cole Shudra, Liam Kirk and 16-year-old
Kieran Brown. Storm were missing an import of their own, centre Shane Bakker.
After the ceremony, and replaying of “that” goal again from Levi Nelson which
gave me a nosebleed of celebration on the day itself, it was time to play some
hockey and Steelers began with the combination of Moose predictably in the net;
Mark Matheson and Joonas Ronnberg on the blue line and Tim Wallace, Jonas
Westerling and Mathieu Roy leading the offensive punch.
It was
a cagey beginning, but it was the Storm who drew first blood at 7:50. With
Nelson in the box for slashing, Matt Bissonnette was left alone at the back
door (how many times did this happen last season against everyone else) and he
made no mistake. The response was not far away as Steelers equalised with a
powerplay goal of their own, Storm captain Jay Rosehill was sitting for
holding, and after a scramble in front of Clementè – Roy stuffed home the loose
puck with assists going to Colton Fretter and Wallace.
Midway
through the period came the first talking point of the contest, Storm defenceman
Linden Springer was given a 5 plus game penalty by referee Stefan Hogarth and
called for “tripping” which later transpired on slo-mo as a slew foot and
obviously the right call. Finner on the Storm bench was apoplectic with rage.
This put Steelers on an extended powerplay but 43 seconds later we were playing
4 on 4 hockey as Robert Dowd sat for interference. That penalty was killed off
and less than a minute after it was, Steelers were back on a 5 on 3 on
powerplay as Dallas Erdhardt picked up a slashing penalty of his own. The
pressure told with 96 seconds left in the period as another scramble led to the
second Steelers goal of the evening, Andreas Valdix tucking away the puck and
his line mates Dowd and Nelson getting the helpers on it. No further scoring
ensued and an entertaining first period ended 2-1 in favour of the Steelers.
Storm
were obviously not there just to make the numbers up, and were showing the
traits of a typical Finnerty team – hard working with a bit of flair chucked
in. It was therefore no surprise that they levelled matters at 27:38; Matt Beca
slamming the puck beyond Moose. After the home team had successfully killed off
a Fretter hooking penalty, they then hit the Storm with two strikes within 44
seconds of each other to lead 4-2. At 31:51 Valdix scored his second of the
night with a great team goal engineered by Nelson and Ben O’Connor even though
the announcement had Dowd for the second assist. Whilst everyone in orange was
celebrating that, a fourth goal arrived at 32:35 and it was down to some superb
play by Kirk who showed maturity beyond those tender years to put in Fretter on
Clementè and the experienced Canadian scored his fifth in five pre-season games
with a calm finish – new boy Brady Ramsay credited with the secondary assist on
that one. It obviously got too much for
Storm’s Dane Byers who picked up an unnecessary double minor as the period drew
to a close, not content with a slash on the irrepressible as ever Nelson then
cross checked the Steelers #76 in front of Hogarth. The rest of the period went
without further incident and Steelers went into the final period 4-2 to the
good.
The
third period finally got underway after ice problems in front of the Storm
bench, a consequence of the fact the surface had been down for only a week and
hadn’t had sufficient time to bed down before being played on never mind
Steelers train on. Both teams also then took the chance to give their back up
goalies some ice time, Brad Day (complete with new haircut this season)
replaced Moose and Ashley Smith (son of Hull Pirates owner and former owner of
the Steeldogs, Shane) took over netminding duties for the Storm from Clementè.
Almost halfway through the final twenty, Steelers extended the lead to 5-2 with
another powerplay strike. This time, Paul Swindlehurst was in the box for
holding and Wallace found space in the left circle to snipe a shot at Smith’s
blocker side; assists going to Fretter and Roy.
However,
things got a bit interesting 29 seconds later at 50:22 when Storm scored a third
goal of their own, former Fife Flyer Chris Auger eventually lighting the lamp
after some persistent pressure around Day’s goal. It got even more nail-biting
at 52:24 when Storm reduced it to a one goal game. Wallace was sitting a
hooking minor, and a well worked powerplay work eventually prised open the
Steelers and Auger had his second goal in two minutes exactly. Storm continued
to push and it took some resilient defending from the Steelers and saves from
the ever-dependable Day to keep them out even when Smith was sacrificed for an
extra skater inside the final 90 seconds. Final score: Steelers 5 Storm 4.
Some
statistics from the game:
Goals:
Steelers 5 Manchester 4
Shots On Goal: Steelers 37 Manchester 31
Powerplay:
Steelers 3 from 6 (50% conversion), Manchester 2 from 3 (67% conversion)
Penalty Minutes: Steelers 8, Manchester 39
Man of the Match: Andreas Valdix (Steelers), Chris Auger (Manchester)
Time
now for a selection of your thoughts:
Dorian
Franklin: “Steelers never out of first gear. Can play a lot better but seemed
to be brought down to Storm’s level compared to other friendlies.”
Glen
Coldwell: “Manchester has a good team, serious potential. Steelers played
better in Ice Sheffield never got out of second gear (I hope). All about getting
to know each other, Brad needs more game time but I feel he won’t get it –
can’t judge him on one period. Early days but that’s what these games are
about.”
Deano:
“Massive positive in young Browny and Kirky but equally massive negative in the
arena. Showsec took it to a new level tonight.”
Nicki
Blueitt: “We only need 1 line, we only need 1 line...”
Andy
Roberts: “How good did the young pups look? Kirky’s vision for the goal. Dowd,
Nelson, Valdix line. Westerling turning on the skills.”
Thanks for reading guys. If you want to get involved please contact us on Twitter or find us on Facebook and like us and leave a comment:-
@FrozenSteelBlog
@FrozenSteelMNL
@hockeybhoy
@Disgu15ed
Check out Breaking The Ice: Our Podcast
Available on iTunes to listen and download, also on SoundCloud
No comments:
Post a Comment