EIHL Game Report: Sheffield Steelers 2 Dundee Stars 1

Two late goals from the Sheffield Steelers denied Dundee goalie Dan Bakala what could have been a resounding shutout as the home side left it late to comeback from a 1-0 to deficit to beat the league-leading Stars 2-1 at Ice Sheffield on Wednesday.

Head Coach Doug Christiansen praised his side’s discipline, especially as they failed to beat Bakala for fifty minutes despite dominating much of the game.

“I thought our guys really stayed the course and played the full sixty minutes,” Christiansen said, “we didn’t get frustrated when we didn’t score in the first two period or when we were down one, we just kept working and working and if you can hold a team to one goal and you can create as many chances as we did tonight good things will happen for you.”

It was true; the Steelers came out firing in the early exchanges, peppering the Stars mercilessly with the all-star forward group including the likes of Robert Dowd, Jeff Legue and Stefan Meyer all having opportunities.

Christiansen will worry though about his side’s wastefulness in front of goal, as they failed to get on the board, allowing the Stars to fight back in the second period. With the game deteriorating slightly, Sam McCluskey did what the Steelers’ forwards could not and found the back of the net. McCluskey received the puck from Mike Wirill before firing it past the otherwise solid Frank Doyle into the Sheffield goal to give the Stars a 1-0 lead.

From there the pressure was on the Steelers, who kept their cool despite visible frustration amongst the home crowd.

A third period powerplay really highlighted the Steelers’ woes, as they simply could not beat Bakala despite the best efforts of Dowd and company. Tim Spencer missed a golden opportunity as the discipline Christiansen has worked so hard to establish in the team was pushed to its limits.

With the Steelers virtually begging for a breakthrough they got one from a very familiar source. Rylan Galliardi linked up with Spencer to free space and allow Jeff Legue to fire his shot home from around 30 feet and finally put the home side on the board at 1-1.

Almost instantly the Steelers took the lead, as top scorer Stefan Meyer fired in what would prove to be the game winning goal with nine minutes to play. Captain Steven Goertzen beat his man with some exquisite play down the right wing before squaring to Meyer who capped the move off with a fine finish of his own to complete the comeback and put Sheffield up 2-1.

The job wasn’t done yet though for Christiansen and his side, who had to endure a nervy nine minutes or so before the klaxon sounded.

Spencer smothered the puck with seven seconds to play earning himself a delay of game penalty which saw the Stars have one last opportunity at levelling things up. Doyle though stayed strong pulling off a vital save to see the Steelers home with the 2-1 victory.