Steelers come from 3 down to take shootout win
Photo: John Uwins
Guildford Flames let a three-goal lead slip against Sheffield Steelers before the visitors eventually won in a shootout.
The Flames opened the scoring at 6:06 after Matt Alvaro forced a turnover in the neutral zone and found Jake Willets, who fired past Matthew Greenfield. Guildford doubled their lead just 23 seconds later as Jonathan Racine marked his return to the line-up with a goal at 6:29.
Sheffield were handed a 5-on-3 powerplay midway through the period after penalties to Jack Jacome and Jordan Power, but Justin Fazio stood firm to keep the Steelers off the board.
Guildford then made it 3-0 at 16:21, with Racine getting a tip on Josh Waller’s shot from the blue line. Sheffield did pull one back before the end of the period through Olivier Archambault, whose goal stood after a review following the net coming off its moorings.
The Steelers continued to push in the second period and reduced the deficit to one at the 30-minute mark when Robert Dowd picked up the puck in the neutral zone and beat Fazio. The goal meant Dowd broke the record for the most points as a Steeler with 793, one more than Ron Shudra.
“It feels brilliant!” began Dowd. “Ron did massive things for the club. He's a legend in the game and for the Steelers organisation, and so to be in the same conversation as him is really humbling. I'm glad to get it done and get over the line, so now I can concentrate going forward."
Ryan Tait then tied the game shortly afterwards, finding the bottom corner to make it 3-3.
Fazio made a double save late in the period to keep the scores level. With 16 seconds left, the Guildford netminder was called for tripping, but Sheffield then took a tripping penalty of their own through Archambault 14 seconds into the powerplay.
“I think in the second period we just didn't play our game, structure-wise," said Jonathan Racine. “But it's early in the season, we have new guys, and we need to glue ourselves together a bit more. Justin always plays like that. He always gives us a chance to win every night, that's him and it's huge.”
Chase Gresock put the Flames back ahead with 7:23 to go in the third, but a loose puck that fell kindly to Mitchell Balmas allowed the Steelers to equalise again with 2:14 remaining.
Archambault could have won it in overtime but shot wide, while Brett Neumann was denied by a combination of Greenfield and the post at the other end.
In the end, the game was decided in a shootout. The sides were tied at one each through five rounds before the shootout went to a seventh round, where Balmas scored and Cole Sanford missed to give the Steelers the extra point.
“Even though we were 3-1 down, I thought we were creating lots of chances. I thought we played well in the first period, but got punished for a couple of lost coverages,” added Dowd. “I don't think that period really reflected the game, and we were able to work our way back into things. Two wins this weekend is massive for us. Today, coming back from three down to win in a shootout is a really good bounce-back by the group."
