STEAM SWEEP WEEKEND TRIP

It was fairly evident on Sunday afternoon from the opening faceoff in Golden that the Summerland Steam had come to play. The Steam were coming off a 4-3 OT win on Friday night that saw team captain Paulsen Lautard lead the way with 4 points, including an assist on Riley Pettitt's OT winner. It didn't take long for the momentum from the Overtime win on Saturday to carry over, as the Steam came out hard on Sunday and scored 3 goals in the first 8:33 of the Sunday afternoon affair.

GAME STORY:

They opened with a barrage of shots on Rockets starting goaltender Mitch Privett and were successful early. After a penalty to the Rockets in the opening minutes the Steam were able to get on the board on the powerplay. As the puck was worked around the zone it found it's way to Michael McEachern at the right point. The shot was low and hard, and tipped beautifully in the slot by Jack Mills to give the Steam a 1-0 lead. McEachern and Cole Woodliffe would draw assists on Mills' 6th of the season

Just over 4 minutes after Mills opened the scoring it was Braden Saretsky's turn to get in on the scoring action, potting his 4th of the year. Saretsky found himself with the puck on his stick in the low-slot after a Cody Egilson shot was directed straight to Saretsky by the Rockets' goaltender. Saretsky was able to deposit the loose puck into the back of the net to extend the lead to 2-0.

Just a minute after the Saretsky goal, the onslaught continued for the Steam. This time it was Riley Pettitt who took a sweet feed from Jarrett Malchow off the right wing and was able to slide one past Privett, ending his night as the Steam took a very early 3-0 lead.

The Rockets would take their timeout and make a goaltending change at the 8:33 mark of the first period as Magnus Viberg took over between the pipes for Golden. Golden was able to fend off the Steam for the remainder of the period and they got on the board with 1:46 to go in the first thanks to Zack Finlay. He was able to find a seam out in front of Summerland goaltender Brett Huber and deposit one behind him to cut the lead to 3-1 after a period.

In the second frame the Steam didn't take their foot off the gas, as they controlled the pace and possessed the puck for the majority of the period. They were rewarded with 2 goals in the 2nd period, both off the stick of Cole Woodliffe to extend the lead to 5-1.

As for Huber, he was as good as he needed to be on the afternoon. He was not tested often, stopping 22 of 24 on the day, but he was solid when called upon and made sure his team was in full control of the scoreboard. Both goals against Huber on the day came on the Golden powerplay, with the first coming from Finlay at the end of the 1st period and the second rounding out the scoring at 11:31 of the 3rd period off the stick of Rockets' Cole McKechney.

RECAP:

On this day in Golden it would go down as a 5-2 win for the Steam, but more importantly it finished off a perfect weekend. The Steam picked up all four points they wanted to bring home, and did so without one of their emotional leaders, Rylan Sideroff (Suspension) and one of their leading goal scorers, Wyatt Gale (Flu). Sideroff has one more game to serve on a 3 game suspension after getting ejected from a Thanksgiving day game vs the Coyotes for a high hit on Osoyoos' Troy Maclise. Maclise was able enough to play the entire 5 minute powerplay, but Sideroff picked up a suspension nonetheless.

The Steam will be without Sideroff for one more game, and will also be without veteran Calvin Hadley, who picked up a Gross Misconduct during a fight in Golden and will sit the next 6 contests.


Keep your eyes on Trolley Talk this week for a preview of the Steam's next matchup, which goes Friday night, October 24th at the Summerland Arena against the division rival Kelowna Chiefs.