The Steelers celebrated Jonathan Phillips’ 1,000th game for the club last night with a romping victory over the Glasgow Clan by 7 goals to 1. On the second night of the Scottish road trip the Steelers took on the Fife Flyers looking to make it a perfect four point weekend.
Coach Arron Fox named the same team as that which iced on Wednesday and Saturday with Connolly and Raska missing out.
The Steelers made the perfect start to the encounter taking the lead with only 70 second having elapsed. As easy at hockey gets as Ciampini skated around the left wing hashmarks, slid the puck across the front of Owen’s crease to find Petgrave at the backdoor and he had no problem finishing into the empty net.
The Steelers then saw off a Petgrave tripping penalty before both teams swapped infringements within 15 seconds of each other to see some four-on-four action.
Piche then took a penalty of his own sending the Flyers on their full second poweplay of the period and they took full advantage courtesy of Chris Gerrie who skated in from the left wing and found the smallest of gaps above Greenfield’s shoulder with a perfect snipe. Bafaro with the assist.
That made it all-square and that’s how it ended as they headed into the second period with one goal apiece.
Fife very much had the better of the first part of the second twenty minutes, but it was the Steelers who nearly took the lead in the 21st minute as Jones’ slapshot from the blue line was trickling over only the be cleared away from the goaline.
It was back to the penalties early in the second period as Latal and Cochrane swapped infringements. Cochrane’s very much looking like a make up call on Latal who was called for holding the stick, much to his bemusement.
But it was the in-form Brandon Whistle who put the Steelers back into the lead after a gorgeous tic-tac-toe play between him, Mitchell and Nevalainen who started the play from behind Owen’s net and Whistle slotted it home.
And it was back to scoring in bunches as the Steelers were two up in the space of 40 seconds as Petgrave sent a shot in from just in-front of the blue line and Allen tipped in past Owen. Nevalainen with another assist after starting the play this time from the right wing half-boards.
Despite the scoreline, Owen was still keeping the Flyers in the game with some great saves, the highlight being three saves back to back on Neumann, Piche and Allen with Neumann having his first chance one on one. Greenfield certainly no slouch of his own coming up big on several occasions to deny all Flyers chances that came his way.
With McNally called for boarding near the end of the second period, the Steelers would start the third period with 10 seconds of penalty killing remaining.
Both teams struggled to settle into the third period as broken players meant neither team were able to set up.
It took until the 47th for the Steelers to get their fourth, with Robert Dowd getting his name on the scoresheet. Lovely work from Martin Latal using his speed down the left wing to send the puck across to Dowd in-front of Owen’s blue paint and he jabbed it home to extend the lead to three. Davey Phillips with the second assist.
With the Flyers legs tiring, the Steelers piled on the pressure and Owen continued to make some excellent saves. Overall, he would face 39 shots on the night.
The Steelers put the cherry on top of the cake in the 56th minute as Allen got his second of the night finishing off his own rebound which Owen couldn’t handle on this occasion and poked it home to make it five for the Steelers.
And that’s how it would end as the Steelers took all four points available on their Scottish road trip to make it a very successful weekend.
For his 33 saves out of 34 shots faced, giving him a save percentage of 97.06%, Matt Greenfield took away the Steelers Man of The Match award whilst new Flyer Scott Henderson picked up the Flyers award.
The four point weekend keeps the Steelers in third position in the table behind Coventry Blaze and Guildford Blaze which the Steelers hold vital games in hand over.
We are back in action on Wednesday as we travel to Cardiff for 2nd leg Challenge Cup Quarter Final action. We are back home on 21st December as we take on the Dundee Stars in our last game before the Christmas games. It’s teddy toss time! 7.30pm face off – See you there!
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