Sheffield Steelers let a three-goal lead slip but recovered to beat Manchester Storm in overtime at the Utilita Arena.
“It was a lot of fun, the fans were alive tonight,” said Derek Gentile of the over 8,000-strong crowd in Sheffield. “That certainly makes it easier. Manchester play hard, a lot of teams in this league do, and it takes some getting used to the physicality. But we have some big guys too”.
In a very competitive opening period, Dominic Cormier and Brandon Cutler came closest to opening the scoring for their respective sides early. That was until the Storm were caught on an odd-man rush for the first time in the game and the Steelers made them pay – Evan Jasper feeding Robert Dowd for the captain’s first goal of the season. Jasper almost made it two just before the buzzer sounded to end the period.
If Storm thought they were unlucky to be down by one after 20 minutes, they were even more disappointed to be further behind after the second. Mikko Juusola struck at 20:37, just as Joseph Nardi’s penalty was expiring, to double the home team’s lead. With five minutes left in the period, another rush saw Stephen Harper set up Derek Gentile to make it 3-0.
A pair of minors on the Steelers towards the end of the period gave the Storm some extended powerplay time, and they made it count with 59 seconds remaining as Stephen Johnson deflected Kaleb Ergang’s shot past Eamon McAdam.
Just 63 seconds into period three, Storm were back in it with Johnson on target again to make it a one-goal game. The visitors deservedly levelled at 48:57 as Johnson’s perfect pass allowed Gary Haden to deflect the puck past McAdam.
Harper rang a shot off Drew DeRidder’s crossbar as the Steelers returned to full strength after he served a high-sticking minor late in regulation, but the teams were not to be separated and took a point each with the game heading to overtime.
After a review for the puck crossing the line, with DeRidder getting his glove on it at the goal line, the Steelers were then awarded a powerplay 94 seconds into overtime. Gentile crashed home Cormier’s feed to win it for the hosts at 67:07.
I’ve scored a few overtime goals, but none with a roar like that!” laughed Gentile. “It was pretty cool! I love how passionate the fans are here, it’s a lot of fun.”
You must be logged in to post a comment.