Match reprt from Saturday's exhibition game at the Arena against the Coventry Blaze.
Saturday
night saw Steelers finish their home exhibition games with a visit from a
reshaped Coventry Blaze who completely underachieved last season. It was to
turn out to be a quite feisty encounter with a couple of fights, some debatable
play from the visitors but the home supporters went home the happier as their
team skated off with the all-important win.
Both
sides were missing bodies as the game started under the control of referee Jan
Schjemkal, with Kisil and Fuller on the lines. Steelers were without Matt
Marquardt still but Blaze were more depleted as they were without the services
of Garrett Ladd, Ben Lake, Marc-Olivier Vallerand and Kevin Noble which meant several
juniors were called up by Danny Stewart to make the numbers up. Adam Courchiane
dropped back to help on the blue line as well.
Despite
this Blaze fashioned the first shot on goal in the first 36 seconds, Danick
Paquette being denied by Mustukovs low at the netminder’s stick side. Steelers
were finding it hard to break their opponents being limited to shots from range
as Blaze proceeded to frustrate the home team and a decent crowd inside the
House of Steel. In one of the few times that Steelers did break through,
defenceman Joonas Ronnberg showed his offensive talent when picking up a nice
drop pass from Levi Nelson but Kevin Nastiuk (the replacement for Brian Stewart
this season) denied the Finn his first goal as a Steeler.
There
had been some indications that the game was getting chippy and physical and
after one of those altercations of sorts, Zack Fitzgerald and Paquette dropped
the gloves at 29:11 on the clock. Whilst neither player fell to the ice, the
Steelers defenceman landed the best of the punches including one that cut the
Blaze power forward open before the linesmen stepped in. Less than five minutes
later, we had another fight of sorts when Davey Phillips took exception (and
rightly so) to a late hit on Liam Kirk by Ross Venus which could have seen the
Blaze forward ejected. Venus clung on for dear life in the bout as the Steelers
#13 pounded away with some shots at close range. Yet despite Colton Fretter
striking the post and the returning John Armstrong being denied by Nastiuk,
Mustukovs also denied Ryan Dingle from close range, the game was still
scoreless as it entered its final period.
As the
final period began Steelers were reshuffled because of injuries for Fitzgerald
and Mathieu Roy, but opened the scoring at 47:14. Nelson was the scorer with a
very nice wraparound effort, assisted by Andreas Valdix and Cole Shudra. Just
over three minutes later, the lead was doubled. Ahnelov was in the box for
high-sticks, and Tim Wallace netted on the man advantage with the helpers being
given to Ben O’Connor and Scott Aarssen. Blaze were still playing a physical
game and Fretter was on the receiving of a couple of hits from David Clements
and Dax Lauwers; the latter lucky to escape with a holding minor when he could
have also been thrown out. Despite this powerplay, it was actually the Blaze
who netted shorthanded thanks to Brett Robinson on a breakaway who escaped the
attentions of Mark Matheson and stuffed the puck beyond Mustukovs. Nastiuk was
sacrificed in the final minute but Steelers managed to hold on and secure
themselves the 2-1 win but at a cost injury wise.
Some
statistics from the game:
Goals:
Steelers 2 Coventry 1
Shots On Goal: Steelers 36 Coventry 26
Powerplay:
Steelers 1 from 4 (25% conversion), Coventry 0 from 3 (0% conversion)
Penalty Minutes: Steelers 14, Coventry 18
Man of the Match: Colton Fretter (Steelers), Kevin Nastiuk (Coventry)
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