Elson ‘proud’ of his Pitbulls after shootout defeat
BRISTOL Pitbulls slipped to a penalty shootout defeat to the Sheffield Steeldogs on Saturday night in The Pound.
The hosts welcomed back net minder Tyler Perre to the squad for the first time this season and promoted defenceman Tom Asprey from the second team. However, they were still missing Ben Solder. New import signing Nik Coric was also sidelined, awaiting his visa clearance.
The game had a 30-minute delay due to a glass panel behind the Pitbulls net being smashed during the warm-up.
In a tight first period, there was only one goal separating the teams and it fell to the Steeldogs when an initial shot was stopped by Will Kerlin, but the puck fell kindly and Alex Graham batted it out of the air causing it to bounce over Kerlin’s shoulder into the net.
As the period went on, chances were limited but the game was end-to-end until the Pitbulls were a man down with Josh Shaw in the box for hooking. During these two minutes, Sheffield ramped up the pressure, but the Pitbulls defence held out to keep the score at 1-0.
The start of the second period saw the Pitbulls shorthanded almost immediately when Caly Robertson went in for slashing. When back to full strength, the Pitbulls got the upper hand and came close with three attempts in as many minutes through Ed Bradley, Morgan Clarke-Pizzo and Reece Kelly, with a thunderous shot from distance that cannoned off the underside of the crossbar.
With the Pitbulls looking likely to level the score, things took a turn for the worse when they found themselves down to just three skaters after losing Bradley and Kelly
for interference and cross-checking, respectively. Shortly after Bristol were back to full strength, Elliot Lewis fired home his first goal for the Pitbulls, assisted by Owen Sobchak. Soon after, Kelly went agonisingly close, forcing Dmitiri Zimozdra to make a dramatic save.
The third period was a penalty frenzy, the Pitbulls saw Sobchak penalised for tripping, then Sheffield’s James Spurr was sent to the box, quickly followed by the Pitbulls’ Bradley, leaving Bristol with only three skaters to the Steeldogs four. The away team took advantage of the extra man with Cameron
Brownley scoring to put them back in front. With both teams back to full strength, Bristol went searching for an equaliser. Bayley Harewood sprinted down the line and went close before Tamas Elias fed Bradley to sweep in the equaliser with a bullet from the high slot. The buzzer sounded with the scoreline reading 2-2, sending the game into overtime.
In the additional five-minute OT period, both teams went a player down and both called timeouts as they searched for a winner. Both netminders made big saves but held strong forcing the game to go to penalties. Despite the heroics of Kerlin in goal, saving all but one of the penalties he faced, the Pitbulls couldn’t find a way past Zimozdra, meaning the Pitbulls had to settle for just the one point while the Steeldogs travelled back with the additional point.
Afterwards, Pitbulls head coach Jamie Elson said: “I’m proud of the guys tonight. It sucks to lose, no one wants to lose at home, and it obviously hurts losing in that manner in a penalty shootout or overtime. It was a really tough week for the guys so to see them show up like that tonight I’m proud of them.”