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Steelers match highlights
"Manchester were up for it, came hard, played the body better than we did and won more of the 50-50 battles.
"We were defensively careless and that's the area I need to work on." Matsos will surely welcome the return of Steve Munn to his blueline as in the first period alone, his team relied too heavily on the netminding prowess of Jody Lehman as Phoenix heavily outshot his charges. Lehman was at his best and needed to be as in the opening ten minutes, the Phoenix dominated.
Yet, Steelers rode the early pressure, killed a two-man penalty and stole into the lead in the 11th minute as Doug Sheppard won a face-off and Joey Talbot fed the puck back to Rod Sarich who beat Murphy from just inside the blueline.
The second period was a more even affair however, Steelers failed to capitalise on four powerplay opportunities and their inability to make the most of the man advantage was cruelly exposed in the final minute of the period.
Tony Hand scampered away to feed David Beauregard and the French Canadian who bagged a brace in the Challenge Cup game last weekend made no mistake with a shorthanded close range finish. Lehman went on to earn the plaudits as he preserved the tied score line and force overtime.
The extra five minutes failed to separate the teams and Phoenix took the second point as Beauregard netted on their first penalty shot while Legue, Talbot and Gillies all failed.
Matsos said: "At times we were forced to hang on. Jody played excellently but, you expect your goalie to come with the big saves. Manchester were better than us over the 65 minutes, and I'm disappointed.
"I'm grateful for the point we got however. I would think it was a good, close and entertaining game to watch from the stands, and if every game is like that for the rest of the season, that's good for the league. From the Steelers standpoint though, we have to be more resolute and find a way to win consistently."
On Saturday, Steelers made mid-period mincemeat of Hull. They won the session 6-1, before settling for a final score of 7-3.
Sheppard's top-shelf wrist shot had been the only marker in the first period.
Six in the middle made it a no-contest. Randy Dagenais started the landslide at 20.52. Two PP goals from Legue at 27.45 and 30.19 followed by another on the powerplay at 30.35 from Robert Dowd took the score line to 5-0. Jack Riddle at 32.09 opened the Hull account. Talbot at 34.56 and Ashley Tait at 39.18 ended the scoring in the second period.
Dan Green replaced Lehman and will have been less than happy with two goals he conceded from 11 shots but it was all too little too late from Hull.
CLICK ON GREEN PLAY ICON ABOVE TO SEE VIDEO HIGHLIGHTS OF THE HULL MATCHWhat do you think? Post your comments below. READ MORE Blades Watch 08-09 - The Season So FarOwls Watch 08-09 - The Season So FarWatch Premiership highlights, international football, golf, tennis, darts and much moreFootball headlinesMore BladesMore OwlsMore SpireitesMore RoversMore RedsMore MillersMore Ice HockeyMore rugby leagueMore rugby unionMore boxingSports columnistsAll sport categoriesThe full article contains 637 words and appears in Sheffield Star newspaper.
