Fox Furious as Devils Score a Late Goal to Close the Gap
A huge night in Sheffield, an incredible game and a contriversal ending at the Arena on Wednesday night.
It ended with the Steelers taking a 5-3 lead into the second leg of the Challenge Cup semi final next Tuesday, but Steelers were adamant that lead should have been greater after Cardiff final goal was allowed to stand.
The Story of this one …
Only three nights ago the Steelers shut out the Cardiff Devils in Elite League action 3-0, could the boys put on a similar performance and result.
Well in the first period the answer was yes as the Steelers were relentless in creating offence
It took until 9.17 before Cole Shudra opened the scoring, a deflection as Daniel Ciampini got the puck to the net (Vainio also assisting).
4 Minutes later and Steelers had doubled their advantage, a blast from Huttula flew past Mac Carruth with Daniel Leavens and Dominic Cormier assisting.
When Devils captain Mark Richardson took a tripping minor Steelers had a chance to extend their lead further but Cardiff killed and it was just a 2-0 advantage after 20 minutes.
There was always going to be a Cardiff push back and when Brien Diffley headed to the box for holding, the Devils took advantage with Joey Martin one timing from the slot to narrow the advantage.
Olichefski went to the bin for slashing and Steelers hit back with a power-play goal of their own when Mitchell Balmas finished nicely for 3-1 at 30.21
Sanford for slashing gave the Steelers another chance but the Devils killed and just 20 seconds after stepping out of the box Sanford scored for a 3-2 scoreline after 40 minutes.
MacWilliam for hooking 93 seconds into the final period and Patrick Watling hammered past Carruth to extend the lead again to 4-2 at 42.23
It was power-play heaven, so when Busch made his way to the box for tripping at 46.36 hopes were high of another Steelers goal.
Daniel Leavens didn’t disappoint with Watling and Cormier assisting at 46.30
The big moment of the night came at 50.03, an incident saw Colton Saucerman clash with Tyler Busch. All eyes turned to their tussle and Steelers claim the referees whistle was blown. Moments later the officials awarded the Devils their 3rd goal, scored by Cole Sanford much to the annoyance of everyone in Orange who had switched off.
The officials confered with both coaches waiting anxiously on their bench, when the goal was given Aaron Fox showed his frustration but to no avail with goal counting.
So it is a 2, not 3 goal advantage the Steelers take down to Cardiff next Wednesday in the second leg of the Challenge Cup semi final.