Flames lose home tie to Steelers

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The home team pushed through the 1st period with a 17-8 shot advantage but goals, as would become the evening’s theme, proved hard to come by and the clubs started the 2nd still on a scoreless draw.

Steelers tilted the shot differential back a bit, edging an 11-9 margin and had the first pair of the 3 middle period goals when Eric Neiley got it started at 29:41. Anthony DeLuca doubled the margin just over 2 minutes from the close of the frame, but a delayed penalty, and a 6 on 5 skater advantage, helped Erik Lindhagen cut the deficit in half 39 seconds from period time.

In the final stanza, Flames had a couple of powerplays to pull it even, and generated some good looks to do just that, but went down the stretch still a goal off the pace. With 95 seconds on the clock, Chris Carrozzi was exchanged for an extra attacker in an effort to level it, but in the end it was Jackson Whistle’s night in the Steelers net, and the Yorkshire outfit left Spectrum with the win.

“Certainly we are disappointed in the outcome of tonight’s game, but in terms of performance we played the kind of game that could have won the night,” concluded Paul Dixon.

“We very much dominated the 1st period, and obviously it would have been better for us if some of those good chances had gone in and allowed us to play with a lead.”

“The last 2 periods were a little move evenly balanced, but we had our chances and just couldn’t pull level again so we can only look ahead now.”

“It is kind of nice to be visiting them right away here again on Saturday, and hopefully on that occasion we can make a little more of the offensive success and come out of there with a win.”