Freak goal steals the points for Devils

On Saturday evening in front of a crowd of 5286 in the House Of Steel, Steelers took on the current Elite League champions Cardiff Devils. It was the first match between the two sides since that epic Play-Off Final in Nottingham. 

Both sides had players missing from their ranks. Steelers were still without both Zack Fitzgerald and Matt Marquardt whilst Devils were missing offensive defenceman Drew Paris who was out with an ankle injury. Paris' absence meant that player-coach Andrew Lord and Brit Josh Batch dropped back to the blue line.

Devils opened the scoring at 5:39. With David Phillips serving a minor for holding, the visitors plugged away and it was Sean Bentivoglio who lit the lamp, Joey Haddad getting the sole assist. Steelers were level midway through the period, the goal caroming past Ben Bowns off a Devils skate after an initial shot from John Armstrong, who was getting a fair bit of stick from the away support (again, I wonder why?). Helpers on the goal going to Scott Aarssen and Mark Matheson. The period stayed scoreless after that with Steelers successfully negating a Cole Shudra hooking penalty.

Steelers had a powerplay in the opening minute of the second period when Justin Faryna sat a holding minor but less than 90 seconds after the penalty finished, found themselves 3-1 down. Joey Martin made it 2-1 at 23:46 when a puck sat up perfectly on his stick and the Canadian made no mistake past Mustukovs, and then 36 seconds later Matt Pope was the beneficiary and again the Devils forward made no mistake. At this point Devils were really buzzing, forcing Steelers onto the back foot and looking threatening every time they came forward. Yet just before the halfway stage of the contest, Haddad was penalised for a holding minor and on the powerplay Bowns gave up a lovely rebound from a Ben O'Connor blast to Colton Fretter who gleefully dispatched it home; Tim Wallace with the secondary assist

The third started with a bit of penalty trouble for the Steelers as first of all O'Connor picked up a tripping minor and then Wallace earned a double minor from referee Stefan Hogarth for high sticking. The first two penalties were killed and just inside the last one, Steelers were awarded a penalty shot by Hogarth when Reddick hauled back skipper Jonathan Phillips on a clear breakaway. However, Phillips saw his effort denied by Bowns low down on the glove side: Jono simply couldn't get enough height on his effort to beat the Swinton born netminder. Wallace's second penalty was killed and then Steelers got another chance on the man advantage when Matthew Myers was whistled for tripping. Only 21 seconds had elapsed of that powerplay, and Steelers were back level. Armstrong netting from an acute angle via Bowns' back and underside of the crossbar so it appeared for 3-3. O'Connor and Wallace picking up their second assists of the evening.

Both sides pushed for a winner but couldn't find it and so we went into 3 on 3 overtime. Steelers had the best of the looks but Devils were looking dangerous on the counter as the game ebbed and flowed. Then as the game looked certain to be decided on penalties, Devils grabbed the winner at 64:22. Faryna's shot hit the plexi high and then took a wicked deflection off the back of Mustukovs; trickling across the line and sending the two points down to South Wales.

Time for the statistics:

Goals: Steelers 3 Devils 4

Steelers Scoring: Armstrong 2+0, Wallace 0+2, O'Connor 0+2, Fretter 1+0, Aarssen 0+1, Matheson 0+1.

Devils Scoring: Pope 1+1, Martin 1+1, Asselin 0+2, Faryna 1+0, Bentivoglio 1+0, Haddad 0+1.

Shots On Goal: Steelers 28, Devils 24

Powerplay:  Steelers 2 from 3 (67% conversion), Devils 1 from 5 (20% conversion)

Penalty Minutes Called: Steelers 10, Devils 6

Steelers Goaltender Stats: Mustukovs 20 saves, GAA: 3.73, Save Percentage: 83.30%

Man of the Match: John Armstrong (Steelers), Andrew Hotham (Devils)

Now for your thoughts:

Adrian Lee: "Brilliant game. OK, we lost but that could have been either team to be honest. Nothing to be ashamed of, we played really well."

Tony: "Loved it despite the head in the hands moment at the end. Great comeback again after giving up a couple. Loved 3 on 3 overtime. Keep Koivisto."

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