Superb Steelers strike Stars for eight

On a Tuesday night, the Steelers played their third game in four days when they hosted Dundee Stars at Ice Sheffield. Here's the FSB match report from the game.

As it was as you have been for a few weeks for Steelers in terms of team news. Still no Zack Fitzgerald or Matt Marquardt, both sidelined at the moment. Hot prospect Kieran Brown was in the line-up as part of his arrangement with NIHL side Blackburn Hawks who are coached by former Steelers defenceman Steve Duncombe. Dundee travelled to Sheffield missing former Steelers, Panthers and Blaze forward Chris Lawrence who was out with a knee injury. Stars coach Omar Pacha said before the game that he had a plan for this game, would he be able to celebrate a victory at last against the Steelers?

Well to be honest whatever Pacha's plan was, it went firmly out of the window as Steelers scorched into a 5-0 first period lead which basically put the game to bed after just twenty minutes play. The scoring started at 3:54 and the move started deep in Steelers defensive territory. Finnish defenceman Joonas Ronnberg passed to Ben O'Connor and he produced one of those brilliant stretch passes that found Colton Fretter in the clear and he beat Travis Fullerton five-hole. A shade under two minutes later it was 2-0, Juha Koivisto with his second Steelers goal, tipping in Mark Matheson's pass home with Ronnberg getting the secondary helper. Stars were under serious pressure, and conceded a third at 7:49. Davey Phillips found Mathieu Roy and the King of Sheffield teed up Fretter to tip in his second of the night. Incredible hockey.

The scoring didn't stop there as Steelers went on the powerplay at 13:18 when Taylor Dickin was whistled for hooking. 37 seconds into and goal number four arrived on the scene, Tim Wallace to John Armstrong and he picked out the King to score his first league goal of the season. Stars couldn't stop the bleeding and shipped a fifth before the period was out. An absolutely brilliant goal from Brady Ramsay where he found the smallest of gaps over the shoulder of Fullerton and popped the water bottle off for good measure too. Helpers going to Scott Aarssen and with his first ever point in the Elite League, Kieran Brown. What a moment for the young man!

Fretter thought he had his hat-trick at 24:47 but goal line technology denied him it and the Steelers goal number six. Stars had come out a bit more in the second and bust Mustukovs' shutout at 28:22; a nice move ending with Malcolm Gould lighting the lamp. 2:23 later and the five-goal lead was restored, Roy and Liam Kirk combined and John Armstrong with his fifth of the season past the overworked Fullerton. That was the second period scoring, and the final period started with a Stars goal. Steelers were penalised for too many men at 42:56, and eight seconds later the visitors had scored. Jimmy Jensen, who scored a hat-trick against Fife on Sunday, being the scorer. Then after Kris Inglis was whistled for a hooking minor, Stars defenceman Riley Stadel decided to repeatedly cross-check Jonas Westerling but he didn't count on Robert Dowd to take him for a dance and then downed in just three punches. Perhaps Mr Stadel might do well to learn from this.

Eighteen seconds after this wee altercation, Steelers scored a seventh. With the team on the powerplay because the initial minor from Inglis, Fretter and O'Connor teamed up and Wallace ripped one of those shots from the left circle that we've seen a few times already and it rocketed home. Brad Day entered the game for some ice-time at 47:13 as Mustukovs was given a nice rest.  The scoring was concluded with 1:40 left, O'Connor again involved with a feed to Wallace and his backhand effort produced a rebound which Westerling pouched for Steelers goal number eight of the night. Remind us of the plan again please Mr Pacha?

Time for the statistics:

Goals: Steelers 8 Stars 2

Steelers Scoring: Fretter 2+1, Roy 1+2, Wallace 1+2, O'Connor 0+3, Armstrong 1+1, Ronnberg 0+2, Ramsay 1+0, Koivisto 1+0, Westerling 1+0, Aarssen 0+1, D.Phillips 0+1, Kirk 0+1, Matheson 0+1, Brown 0+1.

Stars Scoring: Andersson 0+2, Jensen 1+0, Gould 1+0, Lévesque 0+1, Mimar 0+1.

Shots On Goal: Steelers 52, Stars 21

Powerplay: Steelers 2 from 3 (67% conversion), Stars 1 from 1 (100% conversion)

Penalty Minutes called: Steelers 9, Stars 13

Steelers Goaltender Stats: Mustukovs 15 saves (67), GAA: 2.55 (2.45) Save Percentage: 88.20% (90.50%) . Day 4 saves, GAA: 0.00, Save Percentage 100.00%

Man of the Match: Colton Fretter (Steelers), Gabriel Lévesque (Stars)

Now for some of your thoughts:

Richard J Allen: "This is a confident and capable Steelers side. Didn't have to kick up a gear tonight and just let our speed and skill do the talking."

Kim: "I feel confident watching this Steelers side. It's good to see goals from so many players. That'll be so important later in the season."

Roy Claringbold: "First period we were awesome. We took foot off gas after first period."

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