Last night Steelers opened their Challenge Cup campaign with an away trip to Manchester. Here's the match report.
It was
the first game of the season, and what a game to begin with: A War Of The Roses
encounter in Altrincham. Steelers had picked up many injuries over the last few
weeks or so, and a lot of game decisions were made prior to Saturday’s game. As
it was, Steelers were just two imports down in Matt Marquardt and Zack Fitzgerald
as Mathieu Roy, Colton Fretter and Levi Nelson were deemed fit to play much to
the delight of the visiting support. Thompson also decided on a five-man
defence to deal with the tenacity of Ryan Finnerty’s men. As for their team
news, they were only missing centre Shane Bakker.
The
game itself was a typical hard one with Storm relying upon a lot of physical
play whilst Steelers relied on their speed and skill; a contrast of two teams. After
an end to end start, it was the Steelers who took the lead with just over five
minutes left in the first period. Storm defenceman Paul Swindlehurst was in the
box for slashing, and 27 seconds on the powerplay left Mathieu Roy scored his
trademark tip ins past Clementè: assists to O’Connor and Fretter. Just over a
minute later the powerplay clicked again (not something we normally say) for
goal number two. As Storm captain Jay Rosehill sat a roughing minor, Roy and
Tim Wallace set up Fretter and the boys went 2-0 ahead: a lead they would hold
onto after 20 minutes play.
What
Finnerty said to his men at the period break, certainly was listened to as they
played with more physicality for the rest of the game. However, Steelers were
to extend their lead to three at 27:49 thanks to Robbie Dowd scoring and some
brilliant set up play by Joonas Ronnberg and captain Jono. New signing Juha
Koivisto was equally making a good impression only after arriving yesterday.
Storm needed a goal to haul themselves back into it and got two in less than
two minutes to make it a one goal game by the 32-minute mark; Erdhardt and
Trenz both lighting the lamp. Shortly after this the fun began and at one
stage, the penalty boxes were kinda like “standing room only please”. Wallace
and Matt Stanisz had a good tilt then Ciaran Long unloaded on Fretter when the
latter was far from interested in a scrap.
Requiring
some kind of focus, Steelers restored their two goal advantage in the final
minute of the second. Matt Bissonnette was penalised for a hooking infraction
and within six seconds of the
powerplay starting; we’d scored. Andreas Valdix the man with the goal, helpers
to Nelson and Jonas Westerling. Early in the third, we had a couple more
powerplay sniffs but on the second of them Chris Auger (I had warned about him
in my preview) broke away to beat Moose shorthanded. Game back on and so it
ebbed and flowed each way until Roy (announced apparently as Ramsay) restored
the two-goal advantage at 53:24. The icing on the cake came at 57:39,
Westerling’s first as a Steeler (exhibition games don’t count in official
records) with a brilliant goal. That goal took the wind out of the proverbial
sails for the Storm and the game finished with a 6-3 road win for the boys.
Time
for the statistics:
Goals: Steelers
6 Storm 3
Individual tallies: Steelers – Roy 2+1, Fretter 1+2, Westerling 1+1, O’Connor 0+2,
Dowd 1+0, Valdix 1+0, Phllips 0+1, Wallace 0+1, Matheson 0+1, Ronnberg 0+1,
Nelson 0+1. Storm – Auger 1+1, Byers 0+2, Trenz 1+0, Erdhardt 1+0, Moffat 0+1,
Hanson 0+1.
Shots On Goal: Steelers 29, Storm 26
Powerplay: Steelers
3 from 9 (33.3% conversion), Storm 0 from 4 (0% conversion)
Penalty Minutes Called: Steelers 22, Storm 32
Steelers Goaltender Stats: Mustukovs 23 saves, GAA: 3.00, Save Percentage: 88.50%
Man of the Match: Robert Dowd (Steelers), Dane Byers (Storm)
Now for
your thoughts:
Kim
Chapman: “Massive character win for us. They were just out to hurt us. Skill
took the win. Proud of the lads.”
Luke:
“Great performance. I thought we were in for a 0-point weekend. We need to just
get a bit more focus.”
Adrian
Lee: “Fantastic from the off. Worked hard and skated fast, good accurate
passing…a solid performance that defied expectations.”
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