Sheffield Steelers 5 Nottingham Panthers 3: Resilient Steelers provide fans with perfect Christmas present
The game’s most controversial moment came early in the third period when, with the teams tied at 2-2, Panthers’ Alexandre Bolduc had a goal ruled out for interference on goaltender Matt Climie.
Nottingham still went ahead nearly 10 minutes later through Alex Guptill’s second of the night but, in front of a sell-out 9,000-plus crowd at Sheffield Arena, the Steelers rallied impressively to hit back with three unanswered goals, including a stunning gfame-winner by defenceman Josh McFadden
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Hide AdThere was plenty at stake and no shortage of intensity given Steelers’ 3-2 win after a shoot-out the night before in Nottingham and they struck first on home ice thanks to a neat bit of skill from Evan McGrath, who slid the puck past Michael Garnett after working space form himself in front.
The Panthers were soon level, however, when a giveaway by Josh Pitt in front of his own net allowed Guptill to beat Climie from a tight angle at 12.47.
Quick transition saw the Panthers take the lead through a pinpoint shot from Bolduc at 25.58 and when the Steelers failed to take advantage of a two-minute 5-on-3 power play, there was a feeling it might just not be their night.
But, at 32.39, a neat feed from Rob Dowd from the left was skilfully tipped in from mid-air by the advancing John Armstrong to level matters.
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Hide AdAfter the Bolduc’s effort was controversially ruled out in the 43rd minute, chances came and went at both ends with Justin Buzzeo and Bolduc both missing excellent 1-on-1 opportunities.
But another giveaway by the Steelers in their own zone left the Panthers with a man over on the right, that man being Guptill who drilled past Climie at 50.04.
Just 41 seconds later, however, the Steelers were level when the persistent Pitt fired home a rebound, although the best was the come just 16 seconds later when McFadden broke up a Panthers attack before advancing to just inside into the Panthers zone from where he unleashed an unstoppable shot into Garnett’s top left-hand corner.
A little over two minutes later and McGrath doubled his tally for the night as well as Steelers’ lead when he tipped home a Pitt shot on the power play.
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Hide Ad“Our team has been very resilient and has fought back on a bunch of occasions,” said Barrasso, after his team recorded back-to-back victories for the first time since . “Our motto is to just ‘stay in the fight’ we did a good job of that.
“But I thought the goal they had disallowed looked a good goal and it was fortunate that they called it off.”