The Steelers dominated the Nottingham Panthers at the Sheffield Arena on Sunday in a 12-goal thriller that had the 7,000 crowd in raptures.
Man of the match Colton Fretter was at his brilliant best scoring twice with further strikes from Levi Nelson, Jonathan Phillips, Ben O’Connor, Andreas Valdix.
Steelers continued to press with some of the most offensive play seen at the Arena in years, surely it was only a matter of time before Paul Thompson’s side got on the board.
In 7 magical seconds they scored not once but twice as the tide turned.
First Levi Nelson converted a power-play goal at 11.59 (assisted Valdix and O’Connor)
Then Fretter scored his first of the night at 12.06 to tie the game 2-2
For the third game running the speed of the Steelers 4th unit showed, tonight it was the turn of the captain Jonathan Phillips to finish off a move started by Ben O’Connor and involving Luke Ferrara. Steelers led for the first time at 29.30.
Desbiens and Mosienko combined to set up Ben O’Connor who neatly slotted home at 36.00 and a 2 goal Steelers advantage.
Back came the Panthers. Nikiforuk grabbed his second at 38.42 on the power-play five minutes later and Nottingham were level when Lindhagen fired past Mustokovs at 43.23
Rather than panic the Steelers just turned it up another gear scoring three without reply 5-4 at 44.42 – Valdix assisted Dowd and Fitzgerald 6-4 at 45.58 – Fretter unassisted 7-4 at 47.05 – Roy unassisted
The crowd were up and off their seats shortly after as former Steeler Chris Lawrence paired off with Guillaume Desbiens – Desi landing some huge blows during the fight.
Steelers were simply irresistible. It was 7 but it could have been 8, 9 or 10 as they launched waves of assaults on the Panthers goal.
Nottingham did manage to pull a 5th goal back at 53.29 and also pulled their goalie in the latter stages as they tried to salvage a point.
Colton Fretter collected his man of the match award and competed his first “Eddy” of the season.
Match report courtesy of Sheffield Steelers
All images by Mick Johnson
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