STEELERS BEND IN EXTRA FRAME

With the 3rd OT loss of the season, the Steelers moved to an unimpressive 1-4-3 on the year or as Steelers rookie forward and leading goal scorer Greg Nolan put it - "we're 1 and 7". The last time the Steelers met the Knights (Paton)…not sure what the '(Paton)' is…the Steelers blew a 1 goal lead in the third to lose 5-4 in regulation time. This time the Steelers had a 2 goal edge in the 3rd only to see it evaporate late in the game and lose it overall in their second straight quick loss in OT - nearly a mirror image of last week's result when the Steelers lost just less than 30 seconds into the extra frame.

The team, however, competed hard with the 8 skaters on the team's roster that late evening (11:15 games usually have that impact on the Steelers available skaters). In any event, the positives included yet another goal from the team leading scorer 'The Animal', and multi-point nights from Didulka, Carvalho and Neild, along with a solid performance from net minder Richard.

Scoring Summary

Didulka G 1 (6) A 1 (6)
Carvalho G 1 (2) A 1 (2)
Nolan G 1 (8) A 0
Neild G 0 A 2 (3)
Durigon G 0 A 1 (5)
Lam G 0 A 1 (2)

Next Game - Tuesday, Nov 25 at 8:15pm vs Gong Show (Bruce) …not sure what the '(Bruce)' is for???

STEELERS DRAW NAMES AND EARN POINT

The Steelers coming off a three game losing streak decided to shuffle things up a little by drawing the line-up literally out of a hat for their game against the league leading Black Plague. As luck would have it, the draw didn't really change things up other than defensemen Larry Romaniuk and GM Durigon moving up to play centres on each of the forward lines. With the draw of names the lines looked as follows:

1st line LW Nolan C Romaniuk RW McCartney
2nd line LW Didulka C Durigon RW Lam

1st D LD Serdan RD Carvalho
2nd D LD Olesh RD Rubin

G Richards

The team played with a lot of energy throughout the game as the line combinations for some reason seemed to click. Greg "The Animal" Nolan continued his hot streak opening the scoring for the Steelers. The Plague rebounded with 2 goals in the first to reclaim the lead and extended their lead to 2 goals with an early 2nd period goal. The Steelers fought their way back into the game on some hard work in front of the Plague net by Anthony Lam who caused the Plague goaltender to throw his stick leading to a penalty shot. Mike Didulka took the shot and made no mistake. Then less than a minute later Lam tied it up going top shelf over the Plague keeper.

It stayed that way through the third and into overtime. In the extra frame, the teams came out flying and traded chances with the Plague capitalizing on their chance to win it 20 seconds into the OT period.

GM Durigon declared that going forward once a month that the Steelers will draw names out of a hat to keep things loose - a move that was met with strong support from the team.

Scoring summary:

Nolan G 1 (7) A 0
Didulka G 1 (5) A 0
Lam G 1 (1) A 0
Carvalho G 0 A 1 (1)
Durigon G 0 A 1 (4)
Serdan G 0 A 1 (1)

STEELERS DWELLING NEAR THE CELLAR

The Steelers headed into Tuesday's contest tied with the Cellar Dwellars with 3 points…3 points more than the cellar dwelling Black Russians who have yet to notch a point in this year's campaign. The Steelers with missing Mark Serdan who was faithfully supporting the Leafs, Anthony Lam who was faithfully supporting his staff as they prepared the quarter end numbers, and Olesh who was…actually not sure what Olesh was doing, 'cause I didn't get an e-mail saying he wouldn't show. The Cellar Dwellars sporting their retro Atlanta Thrashers home jerseys made the game against the Steelers look like an inter squad game as the Steelers dawned their traditional light blue Thrasher jerseys.

The Steelers opened the scoring early in the first as Mike Didulka went five-hole on a surprised Dwellar keeper. The teams traded goals a couple of times until the third period, when tied at 2, the Dwellars broke out 2 on 1 and got past a helpless Steeler defenceman who got his stick knocked out of his hands (ok, the defenceman was me), and snuck one past Richard for the game winner. The Steelers had chances to tie it late as the team put on some good pressure including a blast from Larry Romaniuk that found the trapper for the Dweller goaltender who came up big during the last couple of minutes. The Dwellers added an empty netter to make the final score 4-2.

Scoring summary:

Didulka G 1 (4) A 0
Nolan G 1 (6) A 0
McCartney G 0 A 1 (3)
Durigon G 0 A 1 (3)
Romaniuk G 0 A 1 (2)

After some good beverages and awful wings in the bar that night, Steeler management decided to shake things up for next game. We will literally pull the line-up out of a hat for the next game. So, as people arrive, we will pull from a hat a note that will indicate what position that person will play that night. We already drew one for Nick and lucky for him, he's playing in net. So anybody can play anywhere. Let's just see how it works and have fun with it…it's not the playoffs.

Let me know if you can't make it. We play pretty early this week - it's at 7:15pm vs the Black Plague.

GTA ROAD CLOSURES PLAY HAVOC WITH STEELERS

You would think that for an 11:15pm game, there wouldn't be much traffic hampering players to get to the rink, however, when the city decides to shut every main artery leading to the rink including 427, 401, and 409, only those with helicopters can navigate directly and get their on time. At game time the Steelers only had 4 skaters and a goalie dressed and faced a possible default if at least 6 skaters didn't show by the time 2 minutes were left in the first. Luckily, 3 more skaters arrived and quickly dressed and took to the ice literally with only 10 seconds left before it came time to default the game. For their lack of timeliness, the Steelers had to start with two men in the box - a tough start against the 1st place Swamp Donkeys H.C..

The Steelers managed to kill of the penalties and found themselves in the game until late in the third when the SD's started to take control and notch a 3-0 win. If it weren't for Steeler goalie Nick Richard, the score could have been much worse as the Steelers never seemed to have much of an offensive attack going.

The Steelers next game is on Tuesday, November 4th against the Cellar Dwellars at 9:30pm.

Please let me know if you cannot make it.

Also, if you have not paid, please bring your fee.

Thanks