Goertzen’s late strike secures Steelers’ win

A point gained in a 3-2 defeat at Elite League leaders Nottingham Panthers after a shoot-out was quickly eclipsed by Thursday night’s 9-4 hammering of their arch-rivals in front of an 8,122 crowd at the Motorpoint Arena.

Last night at home to Coventry may not have matched the excitement or volume of goals from the Panthers’ encounter, but Steve Goertzen’s overtime winner – tipping in Shawn Limpright’s shot – provided a timely moment to savour for the increasingly anxious home fans who had seen their side dominate the previous 60 minutes.

It was the Blaze who had taken the lead through Dustin Cameron in the 19th minute, Jeff Legue equalising at 28.26, before Drew Fata put the home side ahead on the powerplay at 37.55.

Matt Beleskey got an equaliser just over five minutes into the third and that was how it stayed until Goertzen’s timely intervention on the powerplay with just 83 seconds remaining on the overtime clock.

The result, combined with Cardiff Devils’ 4-2 defeat at Dundee Stars, saw the Steelers move back into third place in the overall standings, nine points behind leaders Nottingham with two games in hand.

“I was worried how we would come out after the two big efforts against Nottingham,” said Finnerty. “Those are such big and emotional games that you wonder if there will be a knock-on effect in our performances.

“And while we always want to play well, perform and entertain the Coventry game was more about the result than anything else.

“We seemed to lack a little jump early on but still dominated the first period. I don’t think we deserved to be a goal down at the break, but I was confident we would overturn that. We heavily outshot the Blaze in the 2nd and 3rd periods. I felt we took the game to them and while mit was a tought win, it was certianly one we deserved.”

Hull Stingrays came close to a major upset after staging a second period comeback at Belfast Giants on Saturday.

Trailing 3-1 from the first leg in their Challenge Cup quarter-final, the match also doubled up as a league match and all seemed lost on both counts after Hull went in at the end of the first period 4-1 down.

But three second period powerplay goals, two from Jereme Tendler at 23.27 and 33.02 – adding to his first period powerplay strike – and another from the stick of Jason Silverthorn at 39.00 had the home side rocking.

While a win by a big enough margin was still a tall order to overturn the two-goal deficit in the Cup, an upset and two league points were still very much on.

That was until Craig Peacock’s powerplay strike at 40.46 proved enough to give Belfast a semi-final berth and two welcome points in their battle for the title.

AFTER ending a nine-game losing streak with a 3-2 win at English Premier League leaders Basingstoke Bison on Boxing Day, things got even better for Sheffield Steeldogs when they hammered arch-rivals Manchester Phoenix 8-4 on Saturday.

The Steeldogs’ goals came from Greg Wood, Andrew Hirst (2), Edgars Bebris (2), Lubomir Korhon (2) and Danny Wood.