Matt Alvaro had a 3 goal night and the Flames dispatched 4 straight 3rd period minor penalties, including 5 on 3 stretches, to hold a lead before extending it further on the way to a 6-2 win over the visiting Sheffield Steelers.
Maxim Golod took advantage of a Steelers powerplay to set the visitors in front with the only goal of the opening frame at 11:42.
A Flames powerplay equalised off the stick of Charlie Dodero at 24:23. Steelers went ahead with a Mikko Juusola strike in the 27th minute, but 3 unanswered replies by the home team in the back half of the set put Flames in front by a pair and they never looked back. Alvaro at 31:32 and Tedesco 24 seconds later put Spectrum’s men in front and another Alvaro goal inside the final 5 minutes had them 2 goals to the good to start the 3rd.
After killing an early period penalty, and with a little under 10 minutes to go, Flames found themselves in serious penalty trouble, forced to kill 3 penalties on the bounce including an extensive 5 on 3 followed by a shorter stretch 2 men down, but the penalty killing units held firm and went to the final 3 minutes before widening the gap with the Hat Trick goal by Alvaro ahead of a last minute empty netter by Daniel Catenacci to guarantee the outcome.
Jake Kupsky turned away 52 of 54 shots while Matt Greenfield for Sheffield stopped 36 of 41.
“Obviously we couldn’t be happier with that effort and that outcome by a short bench to beat the reigning champions,” said Paul Dixon.
“That 3rd period we have to give a special mention to the penalty killers who had to put away several minutes in a row short handed and a good chunk of it 2 guys down at a point where even one goal for them would have really spelled trouble for us late in the game.”
“Jake had a big night at the back, again especially as we were trying to kill the penalties and see the game out, and to a man everyone put everything they had into a massive home win over one of the league’s top teams.”
“We can enjoy this for a day and then right back at it in Coventry on Wednesday.”
