Steelheads Top Spitfires in Shootout

Mississauga, ON - The Steelheads took on the Windsor Spitfires at the Hershey Centre tonight before an announced crowd of 1,924. During a pre game ceremony, the Steelheads honoured the success of Canada’s Summer Olympic and Paralympic athletes, Summer Mortimer, Abdi Dini and Melissa Tancredi.

Josh Burnside got the Steelheads out to an early lead at 10:43 of the 1^st period, potting his first goal of the season off a nice feed from Andrew Goldberg. The Spitfires tied the game up with Jordan Maletta’s power play marker at 16:26 of the first period, with the assist going to Nick Ebert.

Steelheads Captain, Stuart Percy, put the home squad up again at 15:03 of the 2^nd while on the power play, with a thundering slap shot from the point that found its way over the shoulder of Spitfires goalie, Jordan DeKort. Riley Brace recorded the assist on the power play goal.

The visiting Spitfires, coming off of a 4 – 2 victory over the Kitchener Rangers on Thursday night, showed their resiliency when Brady Vail notched yet another power play goal for the visiting squad, with less than fifty seconds remaining in the 3^rd frame.

Following a back and forth effort in extra time, the Steelheads were able to ride the hot hand of Spencer Martin, closing out a scoreless OT period, forcing a shootout.

Percy was the first shooter for the Steelheads and got the home team out to an early lead with a slick deke, putting the puck in the top of the net on a nice backhand, past a down and out DeKort. After Derek Schoenmakers (Windsor) and Josh Burnside failed to score on their respective shootout attempts, Spitfires rookie Joshua Ho-Sang evened things up, barely sneaking a quick shot over Martin’s left shoulder. Riley Brace was up next for the Steelheads, scoring on a nice move, putting the home squad back up 2-1 in the shootout. Kerby Rychel needed to score to even things up and as he had been all game, Spencer Martin was up to the challenge, turning aside Rychel’s shot to seal the victory.

Spencer Martin stood on his head once again, turning aside 30 of 32 shots, earning himself his second 1^st star award of the season. Riley Brace received 2^nd star honours, with Josh Burnside rounding out the top three. Burnside was also the recipient of the Dickie’s Hardest Working Player of the Game Award.

The Steelheads head north on Highway 400 tomorrow night to take on the Barrie Colts at the Molson Centre, 7:30pm puck drop. Next Friday, October 5^th, the Steelheads return home to the Hershey Centre for the second leg of the home and home set versus the Colts.

Tickets are still available for next Friday’s game at the Hershey Centre box office and online through Ticketmaster.

For more information visit our website www.mississaugasteelheads.com, or follow the Steelheads @OHLSteelheads on Twitter.

For more information

Alana Davidson
Manager, Public Relations and Community Initiatives

adavidson@mississaugasteelheads.com