Six out of six for Steelers

Welcome to our match report from Saturday's game against the Manchester Storm.

On Saturday night the Steelers played their final Challenge Cup Group A game against the Manchester Storm. For the Steelers it was a dead rubber game of sorts as they have already qualified for the knockout stages as group winners; whilst the Storm needed a win to keep their faint hopes of making the last eight. Steelers were without both Mathieu Roy and Jonas Westerling (injured) and Colton Fretter served the final game of his six-game suspension. Storm were without Chris Auger (injured) but otherwise at full strength for this latest War Of The Roses encounter.

The Steelers started with Ervins Mustukovs in between the pipes when few expected Brad Day to start as he did in Braehead a couple of weeks ago, and he was called into early action after a couple of minutes: denying former Braehead star Matt Beca on a shorthanded breakaway whilst the Storm defended a Ryan Trenz tripping minor. Both sides pushed for that all important opening goal, and it almost came from the stick of Steelers' impressive defenceman Mark Matheson on the powerplay with Storm's Shane Bakker sat the first of his three minors of the night: the Steeler missing an open net when it looked a certain goal.

Yet the goal wasn't too far away. With thirty seconds left on Bakker's penalty, Robert Dowd set up line mate Levi Nelson and the Canadian skated in to fire a shot across Mike Clementè into the far corner. Buoyed by this, Steelers ramped up the pressure on the Storm and the Manchester netminder had to be at his best to keep the score down to 1-0. Storm came out in the second a determined team, probably as a result of a typical Ryan Finnerty team talk, and caused the Steelers to go on the back foot and turn the puck over numerous time whilst also intense forechecks were making Mustukovs to play the puck more times that he would like with the Latvian looking at times unsure.

It became scrappy and at times, flat as well which could only result in a Storm goal arriving soon, and the warning became reality at 33:50 when Ciaran Long took advantage of another break and finished confidently past Mustukovs. Yet they were only level for just 48 seconds as the Steelers went back in front. Good recycling puck work behind the Storm goal saw Andre Deveaux pot an effort on goal from the point and find its way home with Swede Andreas Jämtin getting that all-important touch. The goal was awarded after referee Stefan Hogarth (who had earlier provided a massive cheer for a tumble) consulted goal line technology review. Both sides had a slight cause for concern when Nelson and Clementè collided nastily but after treatment, each player was ruled OK to continue. More feistiness ensued when Deveaux and Scott Pitt had a small altercation; Storm defenceman Linden Springer joining in with a few words in the Steelers player's direction which Deveaux took exception to and appeared to indicate "you've crossed the line" to the Storm man as the Steelers former NHLer skated towards the penalty box.

Steelers then ran into more penalty issues with Hogarth, but the penalty kill was again on point and they saw off minors from John Armstrong and Scott Aarssen. Mustukovs then denied Dane Byers on another breakaway as the game began to open up. Then Bakker was given a harsh looking illegal equipment call and the Steelers powerplay went to work again. Pressure mounted and after some good interchange passing it was Deveaux who celebrated his House Of Steel debut with the finish past Clementè. There was a chance to make it 4-1 with less than four and half minutes left when skipper Jonathan Phillips was hauled down on goal on his 700th appearance; resulting in a penalty shot being awarded. Clementè won the duel though, outwitting the Steelers captain and forcing him out so wide so when the shot came in, it became a routine stop for the netminder. No further scoring resulted, and Steelers celebrated another win to make it a 100 per cent record in the group whilst Storm's hopes finally subsided.

Time for the statistics:

Goals: Steelers 3 Storm 1

Steelers Scoring: Deveaux 1+1, Jämtin 1+0, Nelson 1+0, Wallace 0+1, Fitzgerald 0+1, Dowd 0+1, Armstrong 0+1.

Storm Scoring: Long 1+0, Springer 0+1.

Shots On Goal:  Steelers 27 Storm 32

Powerplay: Steelers 2 from 5 (40% conversion), Storm 0 from 6 (0% conversion)

Penalty Minutes called: Steelers 8 Storm 6

Steelers Goaltender Stats: Mustukovs 31 Saves (153), GAA: 1.00 (2.60), Save Percentage 96.90% (92.20%)

Man of the Match: Andre Deveaux (Steelers), Matt Beca (Storm)

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