26 Jan 2025, 18:00 | Regular season | Guildford Spectrum |
Guildford Flames | 6-2 | Sheffield Steelers |
Periods: Shots: | 0-1 (16-20) | 4-1 (16-10) | 2-0 (10-24) | Total: 42-54 |
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Referees: #25 Andy Dalton, #14 Chris Wells  |  Spectators: 1935 |
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Goals and assists
Guildford Flames logged their first home win over Sheffield Steelers
since March 2020 thanks to a 6-2 victory on Sunday at a sold-out
Spectrum.
Matt Alvaro scored a hat trick for the Flames. "It was a
great team effort. We're short of bodies, we needed everyone tonight
and we got everyone. It was a full 60 minute which was great to see,"
said the Flames forward. "We were down by one after the first but I
thought we played pretty well. We just had to not get down about it and
keep to our structure."
An entertaining opening period in
Guildford saw the Steelers up by one by the end of it. The teams
exchanged chances through the opening phases, although the Steelers
looked the more dangerous with Jake Kupsky making a couple of decent
glove saves. With Daniel Tedesco in the box for hooking, a well-worked
powerplay move saw Max Golod one-time home at 11:42 to put the visitors
ahead. Brandon Whistle missed by a whisker as the Steelers came close to
making it two, while at the other end an important deflection stopped
the Flames converting a 2-on-1 rush.
Four Flames goals in the middle period swung things in favour of
the home side. Charlie Dodero levelled the game at 24:23 with a shot
from the point that may have been tipped in front by Travis Brown. The
Flames’ equaliser was on the powerplay, and so was the goal that put the
Steelers back ahead -a stretch pass from Matt Greenfield finding Golod
who fed Mikko Juusola in front for a deflection that snuck the puck
through Kupsky’s five-hole.
Matt Alvaro tipped Dodero's shot past Greenfield at 31:32 to tie
the game again, and the Flames then took over. Brett Ferguson's
beautiful feed set up Daniel Tedesco to put the Flames ahead from close
range just 24 seconds later, while Curti's deflected pass into the slot
sort up Alvaro for a quick finish to make it 4-2 at 36:02.
"We
came in and we weren't good enough tonight," admitted Steelers’ Kevin
Tansey. “We didn’t capitalise on our chances. To win games you have to
win the powerplay battles. We needed to score some there in the third to
try to get it back even but we didn't. We just have to flush this one
away now and get ready to go our for four points next weekend."
The Flames started period three in penalty trouble and found
themselves having to kill off two short 5-on-3s heading into the final
eight minutes of the game. As they did, the crowd noise crew as the home
fans responded to the efforts put in by their short-benched team. With
3:04 to go, Alvaro tipped a Brown shot past Greenfield to make it 5-2
and effectively settle the game. Daniel Catenacci fired into an empty
net with 18 seconds to go to score the game's final game, although that
came after a short delay after a stick smashed some plexi in the
Steelers' zone.
"We're in a good rhythm right now," concluded
Alvaro. "We're shot of bodies and it's a lot of games, but I think we've
got into a good rhythm within our team to face everything coming at
us,"