TRADE-MART DUNDEE STARS 3 SHEFFIELD STEELERS 4
The Trade-Mart Dundee Stars took the lead but found themselves battling back from behind as they made a late push back against Sheffield Steelers on Sunday night.
By Kris Smith
The Stars came out and got straight on the front foot as they tested Matthew Greenfield in the Sheffield goal with a number of shots early but failed to find a quick advantage as the Steelers began to come the other way but Jarrett Fiske defended the Dundee goal well.
Dundee then began to look more dangerous and just moments after Dundonian Jonathan McBean had almost opened the scoring on Teddy Toss Night, Ben O’Connor would blast the puck back into the Steelers end from the neutral zone.
The puck would deflect off the skate of linesman, Colin Connor and head towards the Sheffield net, where Greenfield had left his crease as he anticipated the puck going around the back of goal and had to dive back towards his net.
However, he was unable to prevent the puck from sliding in and that sent the teddy bears flying onto the ice but after a video review, the referees confirmed the puck was deflected in by an official resulting in the Stars opening goal being disallowed.
Although, just two minutes later, Domenic Alberga would put the home team in front and this one counted as he shot the puck towards goal from just inside the blue line on the right wing and it found its way into the top left corner.
Marc LeFebvre’s side would be unable to double their lead with a powerplay opportunity and took their 1-0 lead into the first break but the Yorkshire outfit made a quick start to the second session.
The Steelers were putting shots on goal and as McBean threw his body in the way of Colton Saucerman’s effort, he took a puck to the back and fell to the ice but the puck then dropped straight to Patrick Watling, for him to tap in the equaliser on 22 minutes.
Watling would then score for a second time in the 31st minute as he tipped Dominic Cormier shot’s past Fiske to put the visitors ahead and they then accelerated into a two-goal lead on 37 minutes as Mitchell Balmas and Mikko Juusola had a two-on-one break and Juusola slotted home Sheffield’s third.
In the third period, neither side was able to find the crucial next goal that would either pull the Stars within one or put the Steelers almost out of sight but eventually in the 54th minute, the decisive goal came as Sheffield cashed in on a two-man advantage.
With Dundee’s Keanu Yamamoto and Domenic Alberga both sent to the sin bin at the same time, Aaron Fox’s powerplay unit put Dundee’s penalty killers under some heavy pressure and eventually they broke as Marc-Olivier Vallerand blasted home to make it 4-1 to the Steelers.
However, the Stars would not quit and managed to pull two goals back late on to set up a tense finish as Alex Robert scored from between the circles on 56 minutes and Brendan Harms tapped into a wide-open goal two minutes later.
Despite Dundee going all out for an equaliser, Sheffield held on to claim the victory and next up for the Stars is a mid-week trip to Northern Ireland as they face Belfast Giants on Wednesday night.
Man of the Match
Dundee: #8 Domenic Alberga
Sheffield: #5 Joona Huttula
Goals
1st:
1-0 Domenic Alberga (Unassisted) 12:09
2nd:
1-1 Patrick Watling (Colton Saucerman) 22:00
1-2 Patrick Watling (Dominic Cormier) 30:30
1-3 Mikko Juusola (Mitchell Balmas) 37:37
3rd:
1-4 Marc-Olivier Vallerand (Domenic Cormier, Daniel Leavens) 53:26 PPG
2-4 Alex Robert (Domenic Alberga, Craig Garrigan) 56:07
3-4 Brendan Harms (Brett Gravelle, Jake Elmer) 58:53
All images: Derek Black.
