Five Star Steelers outshine Stars

Time for the match report from Sunday's trip to City of Discovery.

After Saturday's penalty shot loss to the Panthers, Steelers made the long trip north to Tayside to face Omar Pacha and his Dundee Stars. The two sides had featured last month at Ice Sheffield when a five goal first period blitz helped Steelers record a 8-2 win when the final buzzer sounded. Steelers chose to leave Mathieu Roy back in Sheffield, helping with his recovery time so Brady Ramsay was back in the line-up. Defenceman Davey Phillips missed his fourth game in a row. Stars were without former Steeler Chris Lawrence, who was missing with a knee injury, and gave new import Brian Hart a home début.

After Robert Dowd had hit the post, Steelers opened the scoring on the first powerplay of the night. Emerson Hrynyk was sitting a tripping minor, and as the clock counted down to 23 seconds left on it, new Swedish signing Andreas Jämtin was on hand to fire the puck beyond Travis Fullerton. Both teams had a few chances after that but that single goal was all that separated the two sides after twenty minutes action. Steelers though doubled their lead early in the second when they carved open the Stars defence and it was Andreas Valdix this time who lit the lamp; with assists to his line-mates.

Both teams then hit the pipework before Steelers extended their lead at 28:35, a shot from the point got an all-important touch in front past Fullerton. The goal was credited to Matt Marquardt, his fifth of the season and continuing the power forward's great run in front of goal since recovering from the shoulder injury which kept him sidelined for a number of weeks. Stars managed to get themselves on the board though, Ben O'Connor was called for a charging minor by referee Pavel Halas at 33:15 and ten seconds later it became 1-3 with defenceman Joey De Concilys being credited with it.

The arrears became a one goal hockey game in the opening minute of the final period, Steelers coughed up the puck on their own blueline and Hart celebrated his first home start with a neat finish under Ervins Mustukovs. Both teams then went close after that but Steelers were the ones who eventually celebrated the next goal. Dowd scoring it after some great play from his line-mates and giving no chance whatsoever. Steelers continued to press and netted a fifth at 53:42, Liam Kirk scoring his second of the season although it seemed to take an age to find out after goal line technology was called into play. There was no more scoring after that, and Steelers saw the game out for what might prove to be an all-important win.

Time for the statistics:

Goals: Stars 2 Steelers 5

Steelers Scoring: Dowd 1+2, Valdix 1+1, Nelson 0+2, Jämtin 1+0, Kirk 1+0, Marquardt 1+0, Aarssen 0+1, J.Phillips 0+1, Matheson 0+1, O'Connor 0+1, Armstrong 0+1.

Stars Scoring: De Concilys 1+0, Hart 1+0, Gould 0+1.

Shots On Goal:  Stars 16 Steelers 35

Powerplay: Steelers 2 from 3 (67% conversion), Panthers 1 from 4 (25% conversion)

Penalty Minutes called: Stars 6 Steelers 8

Steelers Goaltender Stats: Mustukovs 14 Saves (288), GAA: 2.00 (2.63), Save Percentage 87.50% (91.70%)

Man of the Match: Robert Dowd (Steelers), Brian Hart (Stars)

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