Time for the match report from Friday's visit to the Braehead Clan.
After the week that was, Steelers were back in action on a rare Friday night game. They made the trip north to the West Coast of Scotland to visit the Braehead Clan in a Challenge Cup group game. Steelers had secured their place in the quarter final stage, and knew a win in either regulation or non-regulation time would ensure they would finish top of their qualifying group with a game to spare. With three games in three nights, Paul Thompson took the opportunity to play some of the younger members of the roster which meant starts and increased ice time for netminder Brad Day, plus outskaters Cole Shudra, Liam Kirk and Kieran Brown.
New import Andre Deveaux made his Steelers debut whilst Mathieu Roy, Davey Phillips (despite taking part in warm up) were rested. Colton Fretter served game one of his six game suspension but Brady Ramsay also returned to the line-up. Clan were still without Adam Brace but otherwise at full strength which meant Christoffer Bjorklund and Matt Haywood iced against their former side likewise Scott Aarssen was in his first game back in Renfrew as a Steeler since switching in the summer.
Both sides had chances in the opening stages, but it was the Steelers who opened the scoring with 8:34 played. A bullet shot from the blue line from Joonas Ronnberg lit the lamp on his farewell weekend of action in a Steelers jersey; the helpers going to John Armstrong and newcomer Deveaux. The score stayed that way until the end of the first but Braehead levelled matters just 37 seconds after the resumption thanks to a powerplay goal from Tyler Scofield as Jämtin was sitting a holding minor. Both teams had chances after this goal but it was Steelers who scored the next goal; a Ben O'Connor rocket that gave Ryan Nie no chance at 27:41; it was the defenceman's first league but third overall goal of the season.
The youngsters were certainly having a good game, with Shudra getting some decent shots on goal and Brown belying his tender years with some tremendous hits on more experienced opponents. Jämtin almost made it 3-1 but saw his effort find the pipework before Clan hauled themselves back level at 42:14; Mike Embach scoring his fourth goal of the season in all competitions. Brad Day was then next to shine for the Steelers as he made a series of great saves as the home side ramped up their intensity to look to appease the home crowd who have been so critical of them this season. No further scoring resulted so we went to overtime, and halfway through it we got a game winner and it was that overtime specialist Levi Nelson who took advantage of a Clan mistake to score.
That win now makes it five out of five in the Challenge Cup qualifiers for Paul Thompson's men, and assures them as being the winners of their particular group. Clan on the other hand, despite getting a point, look out of it and will only qualify for the quarter-finals if certain other results go their way.
Time for the statistics:
Goals: Clan 2 Steelers 3
Steelers Scoring: Armstrong 0+2, Ronnberg 1+0, Nelson 1+0, O'Connor 1+0, Jämtin 0+1, Deveaux 0+1 .
Clan Scoring: Scofield 1+0, Embach 1+0.
Shots On Goal: Clan 34 Steelers 27
Powerplay: Steelers 1 from 1 (100% conversion), Clan 1 from 1 (100% conversion)
Penalty Minutes called: Clan 2 Steelers 2
Steelers Goaltender Stats: Day 32 Saves, GAA: 1.92, Save Percentage 94.10%
Man of the Match: Brad Day (Steelers), Ryan Poutlny (Clan)
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