Wednesday 7th March 2012



Steelers' Keeper Geoff Woolhouse (below) stopped 22 third period shots, 38 in all, as the Steelers beat the Hull Stingrays 2-1 on Saturday evening at the Sheffield Motorpoint Arena.



Second period goals from Mike Ramsay and Nick Duff, his first for the club, secured the points and keep the Steelers in the championship hunt.

It was a scoreless first period as the Steelers looked a little fatigued following the overtime battle with Belfast the previous evening (which finished 3-2 to Belfast after Penalty shots) but, with Stingrays Captain Kurtis Dulle sitting out a tripping penalty, the Steelers struck with Mike Ramsay converting from close range.

Less than 3 minutes later, the Steelers had doubled their advantage with Nick Duff picking up on a rebound from a Lee Esders shot which he rifled into the back of the net.

Steelers looked to be comfortably holding out in the final period before a late run of penalties gave the Stingrays several powerplay opportunities. Dulle pounced with Steelers Captain Jonathan Phillips sitting in the box to score for Hull and give them hope of an upset.

Further penalties against Stephenson and Legue granted Hull a 5 on 3 powerplay but Woolhouse was in no mood to concede and the Steelers eventually held on for a 2-1 win.

Player Coach Ryan Finnerty thought the Steelers still had one eye on the previous nights game against Belfast and that certainly paid a part in their lacklustre performance against Hull on Saturday.

"It's hard for people not involved in sport to understand that, but we certainly weren't at our best tonight and that game with Belfast last night played it's part.

"If it wasn't for Wooly (Goalie Geoff Woolhouse), we would have lost that game tonight, he bailed us out. We were second in a lot of areas, at times we were running around and letting Hull take the game to us. Then when we took the penalties in the third, we could have found ourselves in a lot more trouble but again, Wooly was there for us.

"Duff scoring his first goal will give him a lot of confidence, he needed to get that off his back. I thought he played well tonight, it was important we had him back in the line up.

"I'm not overly concerned, we played a great game on Saturday and this was just a reaction to that. We will be a lot better when we go to Braehead on Thursday."

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