The Steelers welcomed the Glasgow Clan to the Utilita Arena tonight for their first visit of the 22/23 Elite League season. Although the Clan have endured a rough start to the season, they are team that shouldn’t taken lightly and have the firepower to hurt any team and under new Head Coach Steven Dixon, the Steelers knew they would come out fighting.
Coach Aaron Fox made two changes to his squad from Wednesday night with Brendan Connolly returning in the place of Mason Mitchell and Curtis Warburton returning as backup in the place of Jordan McLaughlin.
Before the puck dropped, we remembered those who had made the ultimate sacrifice for our today as we welcomed local cadets to lay a wreath on the ice and observe a poignant two minute silience.
The Steelers then made the perfect start to the game as McNally put the Steelers one goal up with only 19 seconds on the clock. He skated in from the right wing, played a nice one-two with Raska and beat Muse. Piche with the second assist.
Jake Bolton was then called for interference sending the Steelers on their first powerplay and they went one for one as Matt Petgrave rifled one in from just in front of the blue line. Ciampini and Kristo picking up the assists.
There was a worrying moment later in the period as Clan netminder, John Muse took a slapshot from Martin Latal up high in the throat area and needed some attention from the medical staff but it was good to see him rise and continue playing on.
The Clan had a better period in the second as they brought the game within one goal with a two goals to one period, the second coming through an ‘interesting’ too many men call from the officials.
The powerplay King, Mathieu Roy picking up the first goal for the Clan, in the dirty area where he does his work poking home a Dunbar shot which Greenfield could only pad away. Second assist to Mitch Jones.
The golden child, Robert Dowd restored the two-goal lead in the 25th minute unassisted but with the help of Danny Kristo screening Muse and Dowd made no mistake finding the top corner stick side.
The only man on the ice to then see six orange shirts was unfortunately the linesmen and as Connolly sat the penalty for the Steelers, Mitch Jones tapped home a powerplay goal in similar fashion to Roy earlier in the period.
The Steelers upped the tempo and ran away with the game in the third period with three unanswered goals which saw the Clan netminder pulled late in the third period.
Adam Raska picked up the Steelers fourth goal after some nice passing between Kristo and Latal who found Raska at the backpost and he roofed it over Muse.
Another powerplay goal brought the Steelers their fifth goal after Mitch Jones was called for a boarding call on Jonathan Phillips. A great finish from the slot as Neumann was found by Kristo and assisted by Petgrave.
Allen finished off a great night for the Steelers as he was found in front of the blue paint by Matt Petgrave and finished past John Muse just as a powerplay expired.
Mitch Jones picked up his teams Man of the Match while three point man, Matt Petgrave picked up the Steelers award and showed his dance move centre ice.
With another two points on the board, the Steelers keep their second place spot in the table, four points behind Guildford with two games in hand.
With Steelers match report
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