STEELERS SEASON ENDS IN SEMIS

There was a quiet confidence among the Steelers in the dressing room prior to the game. Although the Fat Boys edged the Steelers 4-2 (one into the empty net) in their only match up of the regular season less than a month ago, the Steelers came off a dominant performance against Team Grey a week ago to advance to the Semi-Final round and the team felt they had what it would take to get to the finals. Unfortunately, although the confidence was there, the effort and quickness seemed to have been a notch down from a week ago for the Steelers this week. The team was without Chayim Rubin, Greg Nolan and Gualter Carvalho, so management called up Mark Lee from the farm to bolster the D.

The Fat Boys got on the board first very late in the first period following a Steeler errant pass that was picked up in the slot and deposited past Richard who brought his 'A' game on this night. The Steelers tied on the powerplay early in the second as Mike Didulka moved into the slot and fired a quick wrist shot high to the glove side beating the Fat Boy goalie. Minutes later the Steelers took the lead as some hustle and hard fore checking by K-Man lead to a turnover which K-Man converted to a go ahead goal (although the official scorers gave that one to Jeff Garner who had also gone hard to the net ready to knock home a rebound). The Fat Boys tied it on a power play of their own as a Fat Boy forward fanned on a rebound but it still managed to elude Richard's glove as he tried to dive back to make the save.

It stayed that way until late in the third as the two teams traded a number of good scoring chances. A strange play along the boards led to a fortunate bounce for the Fat Boy forward who picked up a loose puck off a broken pass in full stride. He moved in and literally blew past Durigon who may have chosen to play the puck instead of the body and the Fat Boy made no mistake with a nice move in tight to beat Richard. A late charge by the Steelers almost led to the tying goal. The Steelers pulled Richard for the extra attacker and Don McCartney spotted open in the slot by Durigon fired a shot past the Fat goalie only have the goal called back because the official thought we had a man in the crease. And so ended the Steelers' season.

Gents, I thought it was a great season, I had a lot of fun - kind of glad we moved down to 'E' division for the 2nd half of the season. Thanks for being part of the team - hope to have everyone back in the winter time.

Chayim - I need your jerseys - let me know how I can get them.

If you guys want to get together for a skate next week, Icesports is offering ice-time at 120/hr. If I have enough interest I'll book it, so let me know.

For those of you not playing in the summer - have a great summer, see you in the winter. For those of you on the summer Steelers - dry land training started yesterday!

Cheers

Mario