Slick Steelers Crown The Capitals

On Wednesday night, Steelers made the long trip north to face the Edinburgh Capitals at Murrayfield. Here's the match report.

A game in Edinburgh is not exactly the ideal preparation you want in midweek when you have two massive games coming up against Cardiff and Belfast is it. However, Steelers had exactly that and ventured off to the Scottish capital in the hunt for two more priceless Elite League points. It was the same team that iced against Dundee on Sunday, which meant that both Mathieu Roy and Davey Phillips did not travel. Kieran Brown was added to the squad though. Capitals were missing Taylor Stiefshen, Alexander Islamov and Igor Valeyev.

Needing an early goal to settle themselves after the long journey from South Yorkshire, Steelers got that at 3:16. A good team move ended up with top scorer John Armstrong scoring his ninth league goal of the season past Pavel Shegalo; a confident finish from the slot. Steelers were continuing to force the issue and added a second midway through the period. Mike Cazzola was sitting a hooking minor, and on Steelers second powerplay (and ironically this was their last) of the night, Robert Dowd saw his slapshot get a juicy rebound and Matt Marquardt continued his hot streak in front of goal with yet another marker. 15 seconds is all it took from when Cazzola was called.

Whenever Steelers were picking up penalties, the penalty kill was again immense and that's been a pleasing aspect all season so far with the home side the latest to be frustrated. Both goalies were being called on too to make crucial saves and it took until 33:08 before the next goal came. Excellent play from the second line again, and Dowd finished with aplomb. 39 seconds later and it was 4-0, Mark Matheson with his first goal as a Steeler. A minute later and the Steelers had gone nap, Colton Fretter saw his effort go wide but bounce favourably off the boards for team-mate Ben O'Connor who took the opportunity presented up to him. Ervins Mustukovs had his shutout bid ruined though at 36:39, Duncan Spiers the player who did it after a nice break with Callum Boyd.

That was the scoring done with, but still both teams had chances to increase their tallies in the minutes that followed in the remainder of the second and also the whole of the third. We also had a little scrap in the final seconds, Brady Ramsay again showing his mettle again when Capitals Latvian Juris Upitis offered him a square go. But it's another win for the Steelers and another that hauls them within two points of early pacesetters Manchester Storm even though we have played more games than anyone in the league so far. Bigger tests await.

Time for the statistics:

Goals: Capitals 1 Steelers 5

Steelers Scoring: Marquardt 1+1, Dowd 1+1, Valdix 0+2, Matheson 1+0, O'Connor 1+0, Armstrong 1+0, Kirk 0+1, Wallace 0+1, Ronnberg 0+1, Fretter 0+1, Nelson 0+1.

Capitals Scoring: Spiers 1+0, Boyd 0+1.

Shots On Goal:  Capitals 21 Steelers 37

Powerplay: Steelers 1 from 2 (50% conversion), Capitals 0 from 5 (0% conversion)

Penalty Minutes called: Capitals 9 Steelers 15

Steelers Goaltender Stats: Mustukovs 20 Saves (288), GAA: 1.00 (2.48), Save Percentage 95.20% (91.90%)

Man of the Match: Andreas Valdix (Steelers), Duncan Spiers (Capitals)

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