Welcome to the summaries of the last four Steelers games up to but not including the New Year's Day game in Manchester. As kindly provided by one of our Junior Members, so many thanks for that and enjoy the read.
I’d say that 2017 had a pretty
successful end for the men in orange. Getting 4 wins on the bounce, and scoring
15 goals without conceding in the process. The first of the four games was
against the Braehead Clan, at the Arena. This game boasted a very comfortable
win for the Steelers, they never really got out of first gear and still managed
to shutout a Braehead side full of quality players that are seemingly unable to
gel together. The game started off very quietly, with a 0-0 scoreline at the
end of the first period. However early into the second period, Matt Marquardt
worsted one underneath the five hole of the Braehead keeper Nie. Marquardt then
doubled his tally, by beating Nie again with a backhand shot that went
high over the shoulder of the impressive goalie. The Steelers as I mentioned
before never got out of that first gear. However when they do they prove to be
unstoppable, but they didn’t need to in this particular game. Clan looked like
they couldn’t be bothered all game, and in the third period Roy rounded the
game off with an empty net wrap around, after Tim Wallace absolutely levelled
someone behind the play. 3-0 it finished, however the Steelers were only just
beginning their scoring over the festive period.
Onto the
big one, Boxing Day. Last year it brought agony; this year it brought delight.
The game had everything, physicality and goals. The two main things you look
for in a hockey game. The first period started, and the Steelers were
absolutely rampant from the start to finish. You could tell we were going to
win from the first buzzer to the last. And we got the start we wanted, a Ben
O’Connor shot deflected off Garnett's chest into the path of Levi Nelson who
slotted home the Steelers first of the night. Not much else happened in this
period, with the Steelers really on the front foot. Into the second period we
went, and we were again absolutely relentless, however Nottingham had a spell
in the second where they looked like scoring, but it lasted all of five
minutes. The Steelers then doubled the advantage, Mark Matheson's blue line shot
beat Garnett high over the shoulder to send the majority of the 9000 in attendance ballistic.
The Steelers then went onto the penalty kill, however at the end of it, they
got a breakaway. They nearly overplayed the break, however the goal came from
Armstrong as his feather pass across goal, deflected high into the net and off of a Panther. 3-0. To completely kill the game off, the Steelers then added a fourth
through a very powerful wrist shot courtesy of Roy. He went high over the
shoulder, and the Steelers went 4-0 ahead. And that was that, the Steelers on top
from start to finish, a real treat for the amount of people that were
watching.
Onto our
toughest test of the Christmas period...or so we thought. A comprehensive 5-0
win blew away the cats for the second time over the Christmas period. A 9-0
aggregate scoreline; I wasn’t at this game, but I wish I was. Even Shudra got a
shift, and boy did he do his job properly. An excellent check on the Panthers
player; and then he got jumped by Gagnon; however nothing less than expected
from the so called tough guy. It was raining goals at the NIC.
The final
game of the Christmas period saw the Steelers beat the Manchester Storm 3-0. A
very physical and nasty game saw the Steelers beat the Storm comprehensively.
Again the Steelers not getting out of first gear, the Storm were hustling for
every puck, but were simply not good enough. They looked a lot weaker than the
Steelers. The first goal of the night came through Dowd, as his shot trickled
through Clemente. The second of the night came through Andreas Valdix, after
excellent work by Nelson, he set up a very well worked goal which was nothing
less than the Steelers deserved. The third of the night was a powerplay goal
through Dowd again, he blasted a wrister from the blue line that beat Clemente
low down. 3-0 it ended on the night, the Steelers sitting in third in the
table, rising 3 places over the Christmas period.
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