Steelers ‘stay in the fight’ to earn coach Barrasso’s praise

TOM BARRASSO praised the resilience of his Sheffield Steelers team after recording back-toback victories over fiercest rivals Nottingham Panthers – but admitted they enjoyed a slice of luck in order to do so.

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 Steelers’ 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 9,000plus crowd at Sheffield Arena, the Steelers rallied to hit back with three unanswered goals.

There 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 Evan McGrath, who slid the puck past Michael Garnett after cleverly working space for 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 then saw the Panthers take the lead through a pinpoint strike from Bolduc at 25.58.

The Steelers failed to take advantage of a two-minute 5-on-3 power play, but, at 32.39, a neat feed from Rob Dowd on the left was skilfully tipped in by John Armstrong.

After Bolduc’s effort was controversially ruled out in the 43rd minute, chances came and went.

Another giveaway by the Steelers in their own zone left the Panthers with a man over on the right, from where Guptill drilled past Climie at 50.04 but, just 41 seconds later, the Steelers were level when the persistent Pitt poked home a rebound. The best was to come just 16 seconds later, however, when defenceman Josh McFadden broke up a Panthers attack before unleashing an unstoppable shot into Garnett’s top left-hand corner. A little over two minutes later, McGrath doubled his tally as well as the Steelers’ lead when he tipped home a Pitt shot on the power play.

“Our team has been very resilient and has fought back on a bunch of occasions,” said Barrasso afterwards. “Our motto is to just ‘stay in the fight’ and we did a good job of that tonight.t

“It was a good comeback from us.”