They had issues with the ice not freezing well in pre season so guessing they've cooled the building down to help
GAME THREAD: Sheffield Steelers v Manchester Storm Saturday, 17th September 7:00pm
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Spoony
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Yeah, the nets kept getting knocked out. But Storm had no excuse last night, they were doing that on purpose. Don't know why they didn't get penalty for delaying. We won anyway so I'll let that slide.
Is it bedtime yet
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JoeySlats#13
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Watched the webcast of this one and it was good to see us get some offensive chemistry going as well as keeping it tight in defense and some solid goaltending when called upon. Was pleased to see a little more physicality also, we threw a few decent hits Pitule and Davey off the top of my head made a couple.
We very much deserved the lead after the first and I think if anything we should have had at least 2 more, Connolly had a breakaway after a great pass from Dowd, Mosey had a chance 1 on 1 on the PP, Petgrave and McNally couldn't convert almost identical back door tap-ins and I think Dowd went close a couple of times, he certainly hit the crossbar at some stage. Think it's only a matter of time until he gets going again after watching his performance and link up with Connolly on Saturday.
The powerplay and penalty kill were good again, I think the PP scored 3/4 and another goal was seconds after a penalty had expired, so good signs there. We seemed to heavily dominate possession all game and if we did lose it we were excellent at getting it back, Piche stood out to me for this regaining possession on a number of occasions. I thought we could definitely have had some more 5/5 goals which would put some peoples concerns at some ease, but from what I saw I think those goals will come if we continue to play in that way both in defense and going forward.
I liked the balance of the lines; the Latal-Raska-McNally line seems to be going well currently with the speed of the Czechs and McNally's physical game helping to create them some space. Ciampini-Allen-Neumann is what I had as our top line before the season but with Neumann in the middle, however, it looks to suit both Allen in the middle and Neumann from the RW to keep it that way, I thought Allen really stood out, he was dominant physically and made some good typical power forward moves in and around the net and along the boards, he also looks very strong on face-offs, which is something we always seem light on. Always good to see a fight too! Neumann looked like a real pest on the forecheck he seemed to be all over the ice when not in possession and looked creative when he did have it, I thought he had a goal coming with either his pull up and shoot or the backhand chance seconds after (good to see him get a double in Dundee on Sunday though). Ciampini looks like a PP specialist as he works the left hand side of the top unit currently, I think the goals will start to flow for him a bit more now, his points have certainly started to appear over the weekend. I noticed him being positionally responsible as well quite a few times dropping back to the blue line if a D man had pinched into the play.
Connolly-Pitule-Dowd had some good scoring opportunities too throughout the game, I think all 3 could've got their name on the scoresheet. Don't know if this line will stay together as Neumann also seemed to be taking some shifts centering this line as he has been over the last few games. Connolly has had a steady start but has made some very smart plays, he setup Raska's goal well just after the PP had expired and he should've had a breakaway goal too.
The fourth line was excellent, they were given more ice time and seemed to spend a lot of time in Storm's zone - Graham in particular seemed to stand out on the night, he had some good shots, he was physical and seemed to be in the right place in our zone a couple of times to, to help break out. Graham also seemed to have a couple of shifts up the lines with Allen and Ciampini, which certainly won't harm him, I think he made a real stake to stay in the lineup if Jones returns on Thursday for the Clan game.
Good signs from this game and sounds like the same if not better on Sunday night, let's hope we can string together a good run of wins and keep these kind of performances as the norm.
We very much deserved the lead after the first and I think if anything we should have had at least 2 more, Connolly had a breakaway after a great pass from Dowd, Mosey had a chance 1 on 1 on the PP, Petgrave and McNally couldn't convert almost identical back door tap-ins and I think Dowd went close a couple of times, he certainly hit the crossbar at some stage. Think it's only a matter of time until he gets going again after watching his performance and link up with Connolly on Saturday.
The powerplay and penalty kill were good again, I think the PP scored 3/4 and another goal was seconds after a penalty had expired, so good signs there. We seemed to heavily dominate possession all game and if we did lose it we were excellent at getting it back, Piche stood out to me for this regaining possession on a number of occasions. I thought we could definitely have had some more 5/5 goals which would put some peoples concerns at some ease, but from what I saw I think those goals will come if we continue to play in that way both in defense and going forward.
I liked the balance of the lines; the Latal-Raska-McNally line seems to be going well currently with the speed of the Czechs and McNally's physical game helping to create them some space. Ciampini-Allen-Neumann is what I had as our top line before the season but with Neumann in the middle, however, it looks to suit both Allen in the middle and Neumann from the RW to keep it that way, I thought Allen really stood out, he was dominant physically and made some good typical power forward moves in and around the net and along the boards, he also looks very strong on face-offs, which is something we always seem light on. Always good to see a fight too! Neumann looked like a real pest on the forecheck he seemed to be all over the ice when not in possession and looked creative when he did have it, I thought he had a goal coming with either his pull up and shoot or the backhand chance seconds after (good to see him get a double in Dundee on Sunday though). Ciampini looks like a PP specialist as he works the left hand side of the top unit currently, I think the goals will start to flow for him a bit more now, his points have certainly started to appear over the weekend. I noticed him being positionally responsible as well quite a few times dropping back to the blue line if a D man had pinched into the play.
Connolly-Pitule-Dowd had some good scoring opportunities too throughout the game, I think all 3 could've got their name on the scoresheet. Don't know if this line will stay together as Neumann also seemed to be taking some shifts centering this line as he has been over the last few games. Connolly has had a steady start but has made some very smart plays, he setup Raska's goal well just after the PP had expired and he should've had a breakaway goal too.
The fourth line was excellent, they were given more ice time and seemed to spend a lot of time in Storm's zone - Graham in particular seemed to stand out on the night, he had some good shots, he was physical and seemed to be in the right place in our zone a couple of times to, to help break out. Graham also seemed to have a couple of shifts up the lines with Allen and Ciampini, which certainly won't harm him, I think he made a real stake to stay in the lineup if Jones returns on Thursday for the Clan game.
Good signs from this game and sounds like the same if not better on Sunday night, let's hope we can string together a good run of wins and keep these kind of performances as the norm.