Steam Drop Two To Cleveland
The Cleveland Jr. Lumberjacks spoiled the Queen City Steam's homecoming, with a pair of victories this past weekend at Sports Plus, 5-3 and 7-4.
After a scoreless 1st period Saturday night, Cleveland finally found the back of the net just 25 seconds into the 2nd to take a 1-0 lead. Queen City's top line, which factored into all 3 Steam goals in the game, teamed up to tie the game at the 6:41 mark, with Raymond Gillies ending a 10 game goal scoring drought, potting his first goal of the season, from Patrick Higgins and Billy Glass.
At 14:16 of the 2nd, Cleveland's Kyle Botos skated out from behind the net in the right corner, and slid a puck in behind Steam goalie Matt McClellan, who was making his first start of the season. Less than 2 minutes later, Vincent Buttitta wristed an innocent looking shot along the ice from the right circle, which deflected off McClellan's stick, popped up into the air, and fell behind the goaltender, bouncing over the goal line to give Cleveland a 3-1 lead.
The Steam took a penalty late in the period, and on the ensuing power play, Cleveland's Ben Gilles tried McClellan again from the right circle, firing a shot right into his midsection. McClellan couldn't handle the puck cleanly, and ended up having to pounce on a short rebound. But Gilles crashed the net looking for a rebound, and McClellan took exception to his aggressiveness, jawing with Gilles after the play, and skating face-to-face with him over to the side boards before Steam defenseman Kevin Akers calmed his netminder down, and kept him from taking a penalty. Gilles got the last laugh just seconds later, when he skated over the blue line on the left side and fired a shot that Kyle Madison redirected behind McClellan to give the 'Jacks a 4-1 lead after 40 minutes.
The Steam came out skating hard in the 3rd period, and cut the lead to 2 when Patrick Higgins fired home a shot from the slot at 4:07. It remained 4-2 until late in the period, when Head Coach Danny Lorenz pulled his goalie for an extra skater with just over 2 1/2 minutes left in the period, and Steam defenseman Chad Carnahan blasted a shot from the blue line for a 6-on-5 goal to make it a one-goal game. After the Steam gained control again in the Cleveland zone, Lorenz pulled his netminder again, but as the clock wound down, Cleveland's Zak Zaremba pulled the puck out of a crowd at the Cleveland blue line, and skated in for an easy empty net goal with just 5 seconds remaining to ice the win.
Sunday's game was a back and forth affair early on, as the Steam's Patrick Nelson and Cleveland's Kyle Botos swapped the first 4 goals of the game. Nelson, who had a 9 game point scoring and 4 game goal scoring streak snapped on Saturday, scored both of his goals on the power play, the first coming just 37 seconds into the contest for an early 1-0 Steam lead. Botos' first goal also came on the power play, and the teams were even at 1-1 after 20 minutes.
Nelson's 2nd goal was created when Raymond Gillies skated into Cleveland territory at center point, and as 2 Lumberjacks came together to hit him, Gillies used the open passing lane to find Patrick Higgins on the left side, who then quickly passed the puck across to Nelson at the back doorstep, and Nellie lit the lamp for the 2nd time at 4:58. But Botos tied the game again just 1:10 later, when Steam goalie McClellan played the puck behind his own net, and took it too far into the corner, where Vincent Buttitta wrestled the puck away from him, and fed a perfect pass to a streaking Botos in the slot. McClellan didn't get back in time, and the game was tied at 2. CSHL top scorer Adam Freeman was given credit for a goal just 1:13 after that, and the 'Jacks took a 3-2 lead.
At 11:49 of the period, Nelson fired a shot from the top of the right circle into a crowd in front of the net, and Patrick Higgins backhanded the puck behind Cleveland goalie Gregg Gruehl to tie the game again at 3-3. Freeman scored again from the left side on a 2-on-1, and Cleveland took a 4-3 lead into the locker room after 2 periods of play.
The game got away from the Steam in the 3rd, as Cleveland's Vincent Buttitta scored a quick goal on a rebound just 52 seconds in, and the 'Jacks held a 5-3 lead. Rick Wozniak extended the lead to 6-3 at 10:52 with another rebound goal. The Steam tried to get back in it with a rebound goal of their own at the 14:02 mark, when Jeremy Narducci took a hard shot right after crossing the blue line, which bounced off Gruehl's chest, and Billy Glass was there to put it in, and get Queen City back to within 2 at 6-4. But Kyle Botos got credit for his 3rd goal of the game at the 15:50 mark of the 3rd, and the Cleveland defense helped Gruehl keep the puck out of the net the rest of the way for the 7-4 win.
Queen City extended a winless skid that now stands at 6 games (0-5-0-1), and fell below the .500 mark for the first time this season at 5-6-0-1, while Cleveland climbed to within one point of 2nd place at 10-5-1-0.
The Steam continue their 12 game homestand this weekend against the Quad City Jr. Flames (4-6-0-1), with games Saturday night at 8 PM, and Sunday afternoon at 1:30.
### 10/21/2007
