What a thrilling game at iceSheffield for the fans of the Bradfield Brewery Sheffield Steeldogs!
Sheffield Steeldogs v Telford Tigers always offers drama, tension, excitement, and passion… and tonight was no different.
The Steeldogs looked the better of the two teams in the first period, creative and incisive at times, defensively sound and showing confidence. Jonathan Kirk opened the scoring with a strike inside the blue line; the D-man is in a rich vein of scoring at the moment. Sheffield closed out the first period with the solitary goal lead, but showed that more was to come. 1-0
The second period belonged to the visitors with a four-goal spree, starting with a Louie Newell goal, quickly followed by a Ferguson strike 90 seconds later. The Tigers certainly were benefitting from a momentum swing and they struck twice on the bounce again through Sutton and of course Luka added his name to the score sheet with an absolute rocket. The Steeldogs would need to regroup and work hard as a unit in the final period to get anything from the game.
And that is exactly what they did! Dan Crowe took his place in goal for the third, switching with Zimozdra. With a surge of energy and belief the Dogs clawed one goal back, Ben Cutts scoring his first goal for the club. Then came the incident that really changed the game; a coming together of a couple of several players from each side, following a slash that Crowe reacted to. Sheffield took the game by the horns with Tate Shudra going bar down for a third goal for the Steeldogs bringing them a step closer to the Tigers. Spurr then added the all-important equalising goal at 47:23. Tigers import forward Peca was ejected from the game on 52:15 for slew footing and the Steeldogs took advantage of the 5 minute powerplay awarded in their favour. Phillips was on the spot to convert a Brownley pass to score what would be the the game winner. Telford gave all they had to try to get level, but the Steeldogs had the edge and emerged as winners. 5-4
After a tough few games, the Steeldogs got what they deserved by the end of this game, earning a much needed win and a boost of confidence.
Man of the match awards were presented to Louie Newell from Telford and Tate Shudra for the Steeldogs.