Lack of discipline bites back on Panthers

SHEFFIELD, UK – Boxing Day at the Motorpoint Arena in Sheffield, and what better way to get the rivalry underway than Steelers favourite David Simms exchanging pleasantries with the packed away blocks. This could be the biggest game of the season for both teams.
 
Nottingham were building tension before the game had even started as they only stepped onto the ice just before the music stopped playing to allow Sheffield to step on.
 
The game got underway, and instantly Sheffield found themselves on the back foot, with Panthers’ Jonathan Zion finding the pipes merely 47 seconds into the game. Pressure continued to build on the Steelers end and Jeff Legue was the first to step into the penalty box, called for interference by referee Andy Carson. Just 5 seconds later, Ben Simon was called for roughing as he ripped the helmet off Matthew Myers head after the faceoff.
 
Panthers would be on a 5-on-3 for nearly 2 minutes, and nerves really kicked in around the Sheffield fans. Sheffield couldn’t get the puck clear, and a pass from Neilson to Galbraith allowed the space for Zion to arrive at the back door and tuck away the first goal of the game at 3.17.
 
Irritator Jason Hewitt stepped onto the ice for the resulting faceoff, with Nottingham still on the powerplay for a further 42 seconds. Hewitt had an exchange of words with Matt Myers in the faceoff circle, resulting in Myers dropping the gloves and tucking into Hewitt. However, Hewitt kept the gloves on and didn’t retaliate, suckering Nottingham into a penalty. This was the first hint of Sheffield’s game plan, and once Simon had come back onto the ice following his penalty, Sheffield were on the powerplay. Joe Talbot found Ashley Tait, and Tait played a perfect pass to Jeff Legue at the point, who ripped one into the bottom corner of the Panthers goal to level the score after 4.27.

 
At 16.46, Jade Galbraith arrived at the back door to fire the puck off Sheffield goaltender Ervins Mustokovs and into the net, giving Nottingham the lead for the second time. This was followed up shortly by David Clarke on a dangerous Nottingham powerplay, giving the visitors a 3-1 lead at the end of the first period.
 
The second period began as the first ended, with Nottingham once again camping out in the Sheffield zone. Clarke fired a puck across the goalmouth but missing the net by centimetres. However, momentum was knocked out of Nottingham as Sheffield’s youngster Tom Squires arrived at the back post to bury a brilliant layoff by Jeff Legue, scoring his fifth goal of the campaign at 29.30.
 
Sheffield found Nottingham were reeling, and took advantage on a powerplay, with Joe Talbot finding the twine at 33.09, following some great work by the specialist team. Sheffield continued to mount the pressure, with once again Jason Hewitt getting under the skin of Billy Ryan this time. Kevin St Pierre had gloved the puck, and Ryan had given Hewitt a little shove, to which Hewitt pretended to throw a punch, making Ryan flinch. Hewitt found this hilarious and made sure Ryan knew it. Hewitt and his line remained on the ice, and Robert Dowd found the net from close to the faceoff circle in Nottingham’s zone, taking a deflection off of Nottingham forward Bellamy’s stick. As the Steelers were celebrating, Hewitt pushed his way past Bellamy to get to his celebrating team mates. Bellamy chased Hewitt into the corner before throwing a punch and a shove. Nottingham were now trailing and there were cracks in their discipline. 
 
Late on in the period, Sheffield’s “stay at home” defenceman Kevin Bolibruck found the time and space to skate the puck from his own zone straight down the middle of the ice and having a shot on goal, which St Pierre saved. Nottingham coach Corey Neilson decided that he would fight Bolibruck to get his team back into the game, but Bolibruck refused to fight back and just covered up and was pulled to the ice. Neilson was once again a victim of Sheffield’s game plan, and received a 2 minute ‘roughing’ penalty, as Myers did in the first period. Bolibruck received no penalty, giving Sheffield a powerplay with 32 seconds of the period left.

 
With 7 seconds of the period to go, Guy Lepine of Nottingham took exception to Joe Talbot leaving the stick in on St Pierre’s glove, and ripped the helmet off of Talbot. No penalties were called, but Talbot needed a change of helmet as his was broken. Sheffield won the faceoff, and with the clock ticking down, Legue took a one timer on the blue line which found the very top corner of the net with just 2 seconds left on the clock. Sheffield capped off the second period 4-0, giving them a 5-3 lead with 20 minutes to play.
 
With the momentum swung completely, Nottingham’s Jade Galbraith had taken exception to Jason Hewitt’s antics, and once the buzzer had gone, went straight to the Sheffield bench to let his feelings be known. One of the linesman intervened and pulled Galbraith away. Hewitt stepped onto the ice and gave Galbraith a lengthy stare, to which Galbraith dropped the gloves and stick and had to be wrestled to the ice by the linesman. Both players would receive a 10 minute misconduct, controversially on Hewitt as he refused to get involved.
 
With the third period underway, Sheffield began to flex their abilities and just built pressure in the Nottingham end. Panthers started to get very physical and were just hitting whoever had the puck. Steven Lee however took this a little too far by drilling Ben Simon from behind against the boards, leaving the Steelers player-coach on the ice. Simon however got up and rallied the troops for another attack, as Lee received a 2+10 for ‘checking from behind’ at 47.03.

 
Nottingham cleared the puck from the resulting faceoff, and Guy Lepine decided to have words with Sheffield’s Robert Dowd. Dowd gave Lepine a shove and began to skate back to get into position. But Lepine wasn’t going to accept that shove, and grabbed Dowd and began to get physical with him. Neil Clark saw that Dowd was in trouble so skated over and dropped the gloves, luring the towering Lepine away from Sheffield’s much smaller player. Clark didn’t throw a punch, and Lepine easily took the victory. But with 2 of Nottingham’s defencemen in the box, and Danny Meyers out injured, Panthers had only 3 D-men left on the bench.
 
End-to-end action ensued, with both goaltenders pulling out brilliant saves. The game threatened to heat up a few times, but the game finally began to flow freely. With the clock running down, and Sheffield 5-3 up, Nottingham began to push forward, and were caught out at the back, but St Pierre making a save on the resulting attack. However, Ben Simon won the faceoff for Sheffield, and former NHLer Rob Globke fed Neil Clark who ripped the puck into the top corner at 57.01, winning the game for Sheffield. The clock finally ran out on an action packed game, with Sheffield the victors 6-3.
Photos courtesy of Paul Lynch Photography
Contact Adam.Varley@prohockeynews.com