SHEFFIELD – What a great start to the weekend for the Sheffield Steelers – a double-header weekend against the Guildford Flames and the Glasglow Clan.
Game 1 saw an emotional return to the Arena for Jonas Westerling, Goals, Penalties and a fight in an exciting 4-1 win for the Steelers plus much, much more ………
The lights went out as the excitement started, the teams lined up and the intro played on the big screens.
On Saturday night we were sponsored by SteelPhalt but before they arrived on the ice for the ceremonial puck drop we had a special visitor.
Jonas Westerling had flown in from Sweden, his last professional game was for the Steelers, his retirement had been confirmed in the summer and he was coming home one last time to say “Thank You and Goodbye”
The crowd stood and cheered as Westy said an emotional farewell
On to the ice came the SteelPhalt party, led by operations manager Lee Bugdol, he was joined by Donna and Kayleigh and the two team captains, Jonathan Phillips and Kruise Reddick for the puck drop
Referee’s Tom Darnell and David Good dropped the puck for real moments later and it was game on.
The visitors took the lead at 03.25, Ian Watters the scorer, the Arena fell silent, but only for a few moments.
Big John Armstrong had the Steelers on the board and level just 10 minutes later, his goal was assisted by Tanner Eberle and Ben O’Connor.
At the end of the first period, we were tied at 1-1.
It took the Steelers until 33.51 to take the lead, it was a lead they would never give up.
Brendan Connolly was on the score sheet once again with Dowdy assisting.
It was the only goal of the middle period, the Steelers led 2-1.
It was tense stuff inside the Arena, the Steelers had several power-play chances but hadn’t converted to make the scoreline a little more comfortable, that was until the 52nd minute.
Remember Gord Baldwin? Well, his brother Corbin sat out 2 minutes for cross-checking and the Steelers power-play went to work once again, this time they converted, Marco Vallerand scoring of a lovely feed from Nikolai Lemtyugov for a 3-1 advantage.
Flames goalie Travis Fullerton had been at it all night, a slash here, a whack there and in the 54th minute it was Robert Dowd on the end of another niggle from Guildford’s nettie. Teammate Brett Ferguson stepped in but Dowdy wasn’t having any of it. The pair dropped their gloves and we all rose to our feet.
Former Panther Eric Lindhagen wasn’t the brightest. After serving 2 minutes for roughing the penalty box door opened but Lindhagen touched the puck before stepping onto the ice. Back to the naughty step for Lindhagen and more PP time for the Steelers, the took full advantage.
Vallerand scored his second, a powerplay goal and a delayed penalty goal as Baldwin had just administered a late hit on a Steelers forward.
The scoring was over, the Steelers had won 4-1 but the night’s entertainment hadn’t ended there.
First of all our friends from match Sponsors SteelPhalt were back on the ice to present the Flames man of the match award to goalie Travis Fullerton, he might have earned the boo’s of the crowd for some of his antics but he had played a hell of game making some incredible saves.
Photos By Mick Johnson
@MickGta
Michael.Johnson@prohockeynews.com
@prohockeynews.com
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