Newcastle Vipers 2, Sheffield Steelers 1

Dec 17 2007 The Journal

BLUE liner Ben Storey’s coolly taken penalty shot and three saves by netminder Ryan MacDonald earned the depleted Vipers a dramatic victory over the Steelers.

MacDonald had prevented Joey Talbot and Randy Dagenais from scoring before Storey was successful and the netminder then foiled Ashley Tait with his glove to ensure victory in the third vs fourth league encounter.

The Vipers went into action without top scorer Colin Shields who suffered a hand injury in Saturday night’s 2-1 overtime loss against the Cardiff Devils. The 18-goal forward could be sidelined for between four to five weeks.

Shields was missed immediately as he would have been one of the point men during the Vipers’ early powerplay opportunity. Instead, two minutes lapsed without a shot troubling Sheffield netminder Jody Lehman.

During the first period the Vipers had given as good as they got – but left the ice a goal behind. Lehman blunted a Vipers three on two breakaway and then set in motion the counter-attack which concluded when Ryan Finnerty sent a superb wrist shot with laser-like precision over MacDonald’s right shoulder on 18 minutes.

The Vipers failed on a second powerplay early in the second period but at least activated Lehman, who had to scramble across his crease to stop Longstaff scoring on the wraparound. Then he was struck on the helmet by an Andre Payette shot.

Shortly after killing a Sheffield powerplay, the Vipers wasted perhaps their best opportunity of the game so far, Jeff Hutchins firing wide of the mark in a two on one attack.

To many home fans it appeared as if the Vipers had equalised on 31 minutes when Storey let loose a belter of a slap shot which appeared to fly in and out of the net but in fact struck Lehman’s right hand post.

It had looked for a long time as if all the Vipers’ endeavour would come to nothing and David Longstaff’s equaliser on 53 minutes was richly deserved.

Longstaff drove to the net and as he bore down on Lehman he flicked the puck over the netminder, teeing up the penalty shots victory

On Saturday in Wales Ryan MacDonald produced a solid performance to keep the Devils’ to one in regulation time. The one that eluded his grasp was let loose by Paul Sample on 28 minutes following Sylvain Deschatelets’ tremendous surge.

Less than a minute later the Vipers struck back after the Devils’ stand in goalie Greg Rockman dropped the puck and David Longstaff pounced on it.

Overtime was two minutes old when former Viper Matus Petricko won the game for the home side.

TOP SCORERS

DEVILS: Petriko and Sample 1+0, Birbraer, Deschatelets, Silverthorne and Voth 0+1.

VIPERS: Longstaff 1+0, Payette 0+1.

VIPERS: Storey 1+1, Longstaff 1+0, D Campbell 0+1.

STEELERS: Finnerty 1+0, Dagenais and Lehman 0+1.