Sublime Steelers down the Devils

Welcome to our match report from the midweek game against the Cardiff Devils.

After demolishing the Belfast Giants on Sunday, Steelers headed into Wednesday's Challenge Cup semi-final first leg against holders Cardiff at Ice Sheffield with a great deal of confidence. Zack Fitzgerald was available for selection again after finishing off a five game suspension and iced on the wing on the fourth line with Liam Kirk and Cole Shudra. Other than that, Steelers iced the same team that were in action the Giants. Cardiff were without suspended Gleason Fournier who was on the second game of two, but other than that were at full strength.

Which side would come out of the game the better ahead of next Wednesday's second leg?

The Devils had the first real chance of the game but Steelers were thankful to the crossbar to deny Joey Martin a powerplay strike as Andreas Jämtin sat a hooking minor. But given this let off, Steelers went up the other end of the ice and opened the scoring themselves shorthanded. The much maligned Tim Wallace beating Ben Bowns short side for the winger's 5th of the season. Just over a minute later the Steelers fans were celebrating again as the team went 2-0 ahead, a low one timer from the blue line by Scott Aarssen arrowed itself past Bowns after Eric Neiley and Miika Franssila had fashioned the chance. It was Scott's 3rd of the season. Yet Cardiff bounced back themselves and reduced the arrears to a single goal at 7:31 when Matt Pope fired home on a powerplay awarded for a tripping minor on Wallace.

Steelers though were unperturbed and ended the first period 3-1 ahead just over four minutes before the end of period buzzer sounded. Ben O'Connor, who scored twice against the Giants on Sunday, firing home his 13th of the season after Bowns had given up a rebound on a Mathieu Roy effort. Roy was the next to light the lamp as he put the Steelers 4-1 ahead just 1:25 after the restart when pressure eventually told on the Devils goal, Mathieu's 18th of the season. Cardiff were outshooting the Steelers but finding Ervins Mustukovs a formidable barrier and hard to breach, and as we entered the closing stages of that middle period: the Steelers scored an incredible fifth goal. Matt Marquardt was the man who got it, his 20th of the season, after a well engineered move.

More Devils pressure came in that final period as the visitors looked for a lifeline which would breathe new hope into what was becoming a very bad night at the office, but Steelers were solid as they resisted every offensive overture the Welsh side offered. Steelers only had four shots on Bowns in that same period but one of those was good enough to extend the lead to a remarkable 6-1 at 47:58. Levi Nelson scoring a 16th of the season via video review despite Devils' claims the net was off before the light came on. But you just knew Cardiff would get a second, and as Steelers temporarily switched off concentration on a powerplay: Joey Haddad netted. So Steelers go into IAW with a four goal advantage next Wednesday, will it be enough? Considering Devils are rarely beaten on home ice, it could be a tighter conclusion than it appears so far. The job is only half done.

Time for the statistics:

Goals: Steelers 6 Devils 2

Steelers Scoring: Nelson 1+1, O'Connor 1+1, Matheson 0+2, Neiley 0+2, Aarssen 1+0, Roy 1+0, Wallace 1+0, Marquardt 1+0, Valdix 0+1, D,Phillips 0+1, Franssila 0+1, J.Phillips 0+1, Ronnberg 0+1.

Devils Scoring: Haddad 1+0, Pope 1+0, Morissette 0+1, Martin 0+1.

Shots On Goal:  Steelers 29 Devils 40

Powerplay: Steelers 1 from 4 (25% conversion), Devils 1 from 5 (20% conversion)

Penalty Minutes called: Steelers 10 Devils 8

Steelers Goaltender Stats: Mustukovs 38 Saves (224), GAA: 2.00 (2.22), Save Percentage: 95.00% (92.90%).

Man of the Match: Ervins Mustukovs (Steelers), Joey Haddad (Devils)

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