Alvaro hat trick sinks Steelers

Photo: John Uwins

Guildford Flames logged their first home win over Sheffield Steelers since March 2020 thanks to a 6-2 victory on Sunday at a sold-out Spectrum.

Matt Alvaro scored a hat trick for the Flames. "It was a great team effort. We're short of bodies, we needed everyone tonight and we got everyone. It was a full 60 minute which was great to see," said the Flames forward. "We were down by one after the first but I thought we played pretty well. We just had to not get down about it and keep to our structure."

An entertaining opening period in Guildford saw the Steelers up by one by the end of it. The teams exchanged chances through the opening phases, although the Steelers looked the more dangerous with Jake Kupsky making a couple of decent glove saves. With Daniel Tedesco in the box for hooking, a well-worked powerplay move saw Max Golod one-time home at 11:42 to put the visitors ahead. Brandon Whistle missed by a whisker as the Steelers came close to making it two, while at the other end an important deflection stopped the Flames converting a 2-on-1 rush.

Four Flames goals in the middle period swung things in favour of the home side. Charlie Dodero levelled the game at 24:23 with a shot from the point that may have been tipped in front by Travis Brown. The Flames’ equaliser was on the powerplay, and so was the goal that put the Steelers back ahead -a stretch pass from Matt Greenfield finding Golod who fed Mikko Juusola in front for a deflection that snuck the puck through Kupsky’s five-hole.

Matt Alvaro tipped Dodero's shot past Greenfield at 31:32 to tie the game again, and the Flames then took over. Brett Ferguson's beautiful feed set up Daniel Tedesco to put the Flames ahead from close range just 24 seconds later, while Curti's deflected pass into the slot sort up Alvaro for a quick finish to make it 4-2 at 36:02.

"We came in and we weren't good enough tonight," admitted Steelers’ Kevin Tansey. “We didn’t capitalise on our chances. To win games you have to win the powerplay battles. We needed to score some there in the third to try to get it back even but we didn't. We just have to flush this one away now and get ready to go our for four points next weekend."

The Flames started period three in penalty trouble and found themselves having to kill off two short 5-on-3s heading into the final eight minutes of the game. As they did, the crowd noise crew as the home fans responded to the efforts put in by their short-benched team. With 3:04 to go, Alvaro tipped a Brown shot past Greenfield to make it 5-2 and effectively settle the game. Daniel Catenacci fired into an empty net with 18 seconds to go to score the game's final game, although that came after a short delay after a stick smashed some plexi in the Steelers' zone.

"We're in a good rhythm right now," concluded Alvaro. "We're shot of bodies and it's a lot of games, but I think we've got into a good rhythm within our team to face everything coming at us,"