Sunday's match report against the Panthers here for your perusal.
After a
bruising encounter on Saturday against Ryan Finnerty’s Manchester Storm,
Steelers returned to the House Of Steel to start their opening regular season
game. The game was in the much maligned Challenge Cup and lying in wait, the
dear old rivals - the Nottingham Panthers. Steelers were unchanged from
Saturday night which meant absences for Zack Fitzgerald and Matt Marquardt.
Panthers, who had beaten Coventry 4-3 on Saturday, were at full strength.
However, they did make a change in between the pipes as Michael Garnett was
given the night off and one-match Sheffield Steeler Sam Gospel got the start.
Would Neilson regret the decision made?
It was
not at all the best start in the book for the Steelers as they were caught out
on a break at 3:26, the Meerkat himself (Robert Farmer) firing in via the
crossbar and the Moose’s back and trickling over the goal line. On one of two
powerplays all night, the penalty box attendants were that quiet, Steelers were
given a chance to drew to level but some good defending from the Panthers saw
them kill off Evan Mosey’s delay of game minor. Less than a minute after the
penalty expired, Panthers were two ahead. Shalla picked up his second assist of
the net to tee up defenceman Yann Sauvé, all alone in the slot on the rush, and
he picked his shot sweetly - Tim Billingsley picking up the secondary helper.
53 seconds later and the misery continued, impressive Russian Alexander
Mokshantsev found Mark Derlago and he did what he has done all his career: light
the lamp and send the Panthers fans into chants of “Easy, easy, easy” and the
Steelers fans and team looking at each other in sheer disbelief.
Needing
a response and one quickly, Steelers were given a lifeline at 13:48 when
Mathieu Gagnon turned the puck over in his own defensive zone following some
concerted home pressure and Robert Dowd found the net. The goal lifted the team
and the building as a whole, and in the final minute of the period Andreas
Valdix and Scott Aarssen combined to set up a Ben O’Connor blast that ripped into the
roof of the goal and end the first period having five goals. Rocked by this,
Panthers restored their two goal advantage at 22:33, Steelers couldn’t clear
and Shalla set up Brett Perlini for 4-2 and the helper’s third assist of a
productive night as he was causing the home defence a number of problems. Yet
not after the announcements for this goal had subsided when it was 4-3, home debutant
Juha Koivisto set up Swede Jonas Westerling to beat Gospel. Just after the half
hour, Steelers amazingly pulled it back to 4-4 when John Armstrong (who had
been booed by the visiting fans in the game, wonder why that was?) pounced on a
rebound and tucked it away.
Still
the goals kept coming in an equally enthralling second period, and Panthers went
ahead again at 34:30 when Billingsley found Mokshantsev who dazzled the almost
7000 crowd with some exceptional skill before picking his spot past Mustukovs:
a goal that was just remarkable even from a Steeler perspective. A minute
later, we were at 5-5. Westerling returning the favour for the impressive
Koivisto and he put the biscuit away. Surprisingly we had no further goals
after that, and probably had time to catch our collective breaths, and both
sides searched for a winner (Panthers failing to surprisingly convert on a
powerplay whilst Valdix served a holding minor) until the moment came. A
perfectly weighted pass from O’Connor onto the onrushing Nelson to roof it
backhand beyond Gospel. Everyone then looked at the clock, it read 59:59! You
couldn’t script it, Neilson and the Panthers team (and fans) were stunned into
pure despair and as usual the joke known as the fire alarm went off in the away
blocks. Panthers had no time to respond, and Steelers celebrated a four-point
weekend that most thought would have been nigh on impossible before the team
arrived in Manchester on Saturday night. Incredible.
Time
for the statistics:
Goals: Steelers
6 Panthers 5
Steelers Scoring: Koivisto 1+1, O’Connor 1+1, Westerling 1+1, Aarssen
0+2, Valdix 0+2, Dowd 1+0, Nelson 1+0, Armstrong 1+0, Fretter 0+1.
Panthers Scoring: Shalla 0+3, Mokshantsev 1+1, Billingsley 0+2, Perlini 1+0, Farmer 1+0, Sauvé
1+0, Derlago 1+0, Spang 0+1.
Shots On Goal: Steelers 35, Panthers 30
Powerplay: Steelers
0 from 1 (0% conversion), Panthers 0 from 1 (0% conversion)
Penalty Minutes Called: Steelers 2, Panthers 2
Steelers Goaltender Stats: Mustukovs 25 saves (Overall: 48), GAA: 3.00 (4.00), Save
Percentage: 88.50% (85.70%)
Man of the Match: Levi Nelson (Steelers), Josh Shalla (Panthers)
Now for
a section of your thoughts:
Dave:
“Concerned about our shot to save ratio tonight. It was entertaining but had
Panthers had their goalie in and not the back-up is it a different result? Not
blaming Moose, he could do nothing about a couple of them.”
Steven
Reid: “Concerned how poor Ronnberg looked tonight. Impressed me up to this
point.”
Joey:
“Impressed with Aarssen and Koivisto. Solid displays offensively from all our
lines, fans were excellent as well even at 3-0 down. 4 point weekend 😊”
Pete
Watson: “Sluggish start then took control. 3rd line were very good:
Wallace, Westerling (should have been Man of the Match) and Koivisto looked
very lively.”
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 Available to listen and download on iTunes and SoundCloud.
Or Email the team at Frozen Steel
You can also get involved in Steelers related discussions by joining the forums at Steel Talk
No comments:
Post a Comment