ALLEN, Texas – Cole Ully’s first goal as a Steelhead was the overtime winner as the Steelheads (9-14-4) upended the Allen Americans (15-9-0), 3-2 at Allen Events Center.
In on the forecheck during 3-on-3 overtime, Ully stripped the puck away from Aaron Gens and circled back towards the top of the left circle. With no one challenging him, Ully took a couple strides in and rifled a shot over the left shoulder of Americans’ goaltender Riley Gill to give the Steelheads back-to-back wins to cap their four-game road trip.
Playing their fourth game in five nights, the Steelheads outskated the Americans for the first 20 minutes, a team that hadn’t played since the last meeting between these two teams on Wednesday, and outshot them 14-1. The Steelheads opened the scoring on the power play with Emil Molin’s one-time blast from the top of the right circle past the glove of Gill at 3:26.
The Steelheads took the 1-0 lead to the locker room, but league-leading scorer Chad Costello hammered his tenth of the season at 3:21 of the second from nearly the same spot as Molin’s shot, tying the game.
The Steelheads hung in through a much more evenly played second period and grabbed a 2-1 lead when Brandon Magee flew in on the forecheck behind the Allen net and won a 1-on-3 battle while the rest of the Steelheads were changing. Magee somehow worked his way free behind the net and slid a pass out front for Andrew Carroll just off the bench for Carroll’s third goal of the year at 18:03.
It was arguably Carroll’s best game of the year, contributing offensively and answering the bell physically, dropping the gloves with Allen’s Dyson Stevenson right off the game’s opening face-off. There were three tilts in the first period alone of a game that totaled 36 penalty minutes, but only six of them from minors. There wasn’t a minor penalty called after the 13:22 mark of the first period as the officials let the players play.
The Americans tied the score again at 2-2 when Gary Steffes found a rebound in the slot and snapped it past Philippe Desrosiers, who made 16 saves for his fourth win of the season. That set the stage for overtime and Ully’s winner.
The win moves the Steelheads back within one point of eighth-place Fort Wayne, who fell to Evansville earlier in the day.
Idaho returns to CenturyLink Arena for a three-game home stand heading into the Christmas break, starting Wednesday night against the Utah Grizzlies. Puck-drop is scheduled for 7:10pm MST.
With Idaho Steelheads team release