Last time the Barrhead Midget ‘AA’ Steelers squared off against division rivals St. Albert Crusaders on Jan. 7, it was a no-contest matchup.
On Friday, the Crusaders came back to Barrhead for Game 1 of their Provincial Playdown series.
The Steelers brought a physically punishing style of play, against the finesse style of the Crusaders, cancelling each other out and resulting in a 4-4 tie.
Right off the bat, the Steelers came out strong, clogging up the neutral zone and pressuring the Crusaders’ defenders, forcing takeaways.
“We told them to get a good start and to dig deep to keep it going all game,” said Steelers coach Daniel Lefebvre.
At 18:26, Steeler Bo Fortin took an interference penalty, testing the penalty-killing unit. Brett Walkers followed that up with a tripping penalty at 15:51, giving the Crusaders a man advantage twice in the first five minutes of the game.
The Steelers stood up to the early test, killing off the first penalty and giving up only three shots which were easily handled by goalie Ian Wierenga.
Jake Chizma scored short-handed for the Steelers when Jorrey Jensen’s shot rebounded off of Joel Wilson’s pad.
However, the Crusaders tied the game only minutes later.
At 10:37, Corey Mercier gave the Steelers their second lead of the game, sniping the puck past Wilson, after Connor Tiemstra threaded a pass just beyond the reach of a Crusader defender.
Wierenga came up with a huge pad save only seconds later, when the Crusaders broke in on a three-on-one, and Wierenga went from post to post to foil the attempt.
The first period closed with the Steelers on top of the division leaders 2-1.
Once the second period started, the Steelers seemed to be on the back foot as the Crusaders quickly tied the game.
“We had a little bit of let down at the beginning of the second,” said Lefebvre.
Jensen reestablished the lead for the Steelers at 14:33 when he roofed a bullet of a shot from the bottom of the circle.
Wilson had no chance of stopping it.
Chizma scored his second goal of the game as he drove to the net with a Crusader defenceman draped over him. Wilson went down early. Chizma made no mistake with his shot, hitting the top corner of net with 8:20 left in the second.
The Steelers picked up the pace in the second half of the period, stepping up the physical pressure on the Crusaders.
The Crusaders answered with a goal, pulling to within one of the Steelers’ lead before the buzzer sounded to close the second.
Coming out of the dressing room to start the third, the Barrhead team looked a little nervous. They weren’t the same physical team they had been in the previous 40 minutes.
“We tried to preserve the lead too much instead of just putting the foot down and it looked like they were afraid to make a mistake. They were gripping their sticks a little tighter,” said Lefebvre
The Crusaders took advantage of the Steelers’ drop in intensity, tying up the game on a tipped point shot.
“Both goalies played really well, but it came down to the little mistakes,” said Lefebvre.
Give the guys credit though, as they battled until the final second of the game, throwing their bodies in front of shots, preserving the tie, and giving themselves a chance to move past Game 2 against the Crusaders on Wednesday in St. Albert.
“We’ll take the tie going into St. Albert on Wednesday, that one is for all the marbles,” said Lefebvre.
