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Chicago Steel deal Green Bay Gamblers a pair of losses over the weekend

  
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Sean Farrell helped lead the Chicago Steel to victories over the Green Bay Gamblers. (Photograph courtesy of the Chicago Steel)

The Chicago Steel won both contests against the Green Bay Gamblers this past weekend, besting the visitors 7–3 on Friday and 4–3 on Saturday in a shootout. With the victories, the Steel’s record now sits at 2–1–0–0 on the early season. Forwards Jack Babbage and Matt Coronato scored twice on the weekend to lead the way for the Steel.

Green Bay opened the scoring on Friday after forward Cam Thiesing scored his first of two goals in the contest at the 2:31 mark of the first period. The goal would be the last lead the Gamblers would see in the game, as Chicago scored the next six goals of the game to take a commanding lead.

Forward Matthew Gleason scored his first goal of the season, at the 5:51 mark, to tie the game at 1–1 before forward Erik Middendorf beat Gambler goaltender Matt Davis at the 14:05 mark of the first period to give Chicago the 2–1. Chicago finished off the scoring in the first period when Coronato scored his third goal of the season to give Chicago the 3–1 lead entering the first intermission. The Harvard commit scored after pounding home a rebound from a Middendorf shot from the point.

Babbage wasted no time scoring his second goal of the season 50 seconds into the second period. The goal also gave forward Mackie Samoskevich his second assist of the game and seventh on the season, when the University of Michigan commit found Babbage with a nice back-door feed.

At the 7:45 mark of the second period, Jackson Blake netted his second goal of the season. The goal, assisted by forward Adam Robbins, forced the hand of Gambler Head Coach Pat Mikesch to change goaltenders, as Aaron Randazzo came in off the bench for Davis. Robbins started the 2-on-1 rush after a nice defensive play in his own end.

Theising scored his second goal of the game, beating Chicago goaltender Ian Shane. After two periods of play, Chicago led Green Bay 6–2.

Forward Sean Farrell scored his third goal of the season midway through the last frame. The goal, assisted by forward Anthony Dowd, would only be followed up with Green Bay’s final tally of the game by forward Kyler Grundy to give Chicago the 7–3 victory on the evening.

Shane stopped 25 shots to earn his first victory of the season in net.

On Saturday, goaltender Nick Haas stopped 34 of the 37 shots he faced during regulation and overtime, while stopping both Green Bay attempts in the shootout, to earn the Buffalo, New York, native his first USHL victory in net.

Both teams traded goals in the first period of play. Green Bay started the scoring after forward Jesse Tucker scored his first goal of the season at the 11:29 mark. About a minute and a half later, Robbins tallied his first goal of the season for the Steel. Robbins made a strong play toward the net and pounced home his own rebound.

Defenseman Anthony Dowd scored his first goal of his USHL career early in the second period to give Chicago the 2–1 lead. Dowd buried home a spin-o-rama pass from Middendorf to finish off the electrifying play.

Thiesing scored his third of the season for Green Bay to tie the game at 2–2 at the 5:22 mark of the period. That short-lived tie was broken when Babbage netted his third goal of the season at the 7:33 mark of the second period. The goal, assisted by defenseman David Ma and forward Dawson Pasternak, gave the Tully, New York, native his third goal of the season.

Green Bay tallied the lone goal of the third period when Boston University commit Ryan Greene beat Haas for his second goal of the season.

With the game tied at 3–3, Green Bay showed an extra step in overtime, but could not solve the brick wall that was Haas. The Gamblers outshot the Steel 5–1 in the overtime, but it was Chicago that came out on top when Coronato and Farrell that beat Davis in the shootout to give the home team the 4–3 victory.

Chicago is back in action on Wednesday against the same Green Bay Gamblers. The teams will line up for the opening puck drop at 7:05 p.m. CST in Green Bay. Chicago will then be back on home ice on Friday against the Team USA U17 team and Saturday against the Team USA U18 team. Both games are scheduled for 7:05 p.m. CST.

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