Steelheads Drop Season Opener
The Mississauga Steelheads kicked off the 2017-18 season on Friday night against the Ottawa 67’s. After a pre-game ceremony to unveil the Steelheads’ 2017-18 Eastern Conference Championship and Central Division Championship, the Steelheads went straight to work.
After a scoreless first period, where the Steelheads peppered nine shots on 67’s starting goaltender Olivier Lafreniere, the Steelheads’ first goal of the new campaign was scored by Ryan McLeod.
Early in the second period, McLeod beat Lafreniere high glove-side off a rebound from linemate Trent Fox.
With 67’s forward Sam Bitten in the box, the Trout found the back of the net again courtesy of Albert Michnac. Michanc, playing in hs first regular season game for the Steelheads was acquired through the CHL Import Draft from Guelph.
Still in the second, with Fox in the box, Sasha Chmelevski was able to capitalize on the power play for Ottawa. Shortly after, Kody Clark snuck one past Jake Ingham and tied the game. With under two seconds left in the second, Ottawa beat Ingham for the third time in the frame.
The third period started off slow with both teams feeling each other out. As the period winded down, the Steelheads elected to pull Ingham in favour of the extra attacker and Mathieu Foget promptly potted an empty netter to put the 67’s up 4-2.
As the final buzzer sounded, Ryan McLeod snuck his second of the game past Lafreniere to make the final 4-3.
The Steelheads return home on September 29th to face the Hamilton Bulldogs.
