Queen City Steam Start On The Right Track

The Queen City Steam had their work cut out for them right from page one of their history book.  Their first game ever matched them against the 4 time National Junior B Champion St. Louis Jr. Blues at Sports Plus on Saturday night.

With a big opening night crowd in the brand new bleachers, the Steam fell behind early on a powerplay goal by Blues' forward CJ Jung.  Queen City winger Ryan Gagliardi tied the game with a powerplay goal of his own, when he deflected home a blast from center point by defenseman Ben Blank.  With just over a half minute left in the 1st period, Jung quarterbacked the St. Louis powerplay to another goal, patiently holding the puck at center point as a Queen City defender went down and slid past him in an attempt to block a shot that Jung never took.  Instead, he used the resulting open passing lane to feed a perfect pass to Sam Davis, and Davis found the back of the net to give St. Louis a 2-1 lead after 20 minutes of play.

Then the players from the past took over.  Raymond Gillies found Mike Behen in the slot with a pass, and Behen fired a shot upstairs behind St. Louis goalie Max Ozawa to tie the game again at 2-2.

In the 3rd, Brendan Aydelott went from almost-hero, to almost-goat, to major contributor.  First, noticing that Blues goalie Ozawa was leaving a lot of room open up top, he skated across the middle with just 6 minutes left in regulation and ripped a shot over the net that just missed going in.  The resulting disappointment quickly turned to joy as the puck bounced off the back glass, and came right to center Patrick Higgins at the side of the net, and with Ozawa sprawled across the other side of the crease, Higgins had a wide open net to shoot at.  He didn't miss, and the Steam had their first lead in team history at 3-2.

Then, with just 1:12 left in regulation, Aydelott was called for a tripping penalty while trying to chase down a Blues skater behind the St. Louis net.  The penalty resulted in a St. Louis 6-on-4 goal with just 28 seconds left, when Blues defenseman Grant Boyd stopped at the top of the right faceoff circle, and just slid the puck toward the net through a jumble of skates.  Zach Hamilton was the lucky puck finder, and the game was tied again at 3-3.

After a scoreless overtime, the two teams went to a shootout.  Queen City goalie Kevin Kustich stood strong for the 1st two shooters, and Steam captain Higgins fired the team's first ever shootout shot into the net.  But the two Blues who teamed up to tie the game during regulation, Hamilton and Boyd, also teamed up to give St. Louis the shootout lead on their next 2 shots.  That brought Aydelott to the ice for a shot at redemption.  He skated straight down the ice, through the slot, and ripped a shot upstairs on Ozawa, and this time he hit his mark to tie the shootout at 2-2 after 4 complete rounds.

Kustich blocked the 5th St. Louis shot, and then waved his arms up in the air, encouraging the fans to get loud.  They obliged, and seconds later, Ryan Gagliardi took a cue from Aydelott, skating straight down the middle of the ice, into the slot, and burying the game winning shot.....upstairs.

After a brief celebration, the entire Queen City Steam skated to center ice, and raised their sticks in a salute to the fans, to top off the storybook ending, as new owner Steve Penman would say after the game, "Just like we wrote it".