The Swan Valley Stampeders fell to the Selkirk Steelers on home ice Sunday January 6th, in a rare afternoon game.
Special teams was a major factor in this afternoons game as the Steelers went 1/7 and the Stampeders went 1/10 on the power play.
The offence dried up in the opening twenty minutes as Austin Deboer and Merek Pipes stopped everything sent on net. The scoreless first period came to an end with the shots 10-9 in favour of Selkirk.
The Stampeders finally solved Austin Deboer forty seven seconds into the middle frame on an unbelievable passing play between Leyson Coleman and Campbell Balk, who then found a wide open Quintin Sudom streaking in back door, snapping home his fourteenth of the year on the power play. The middle frame closed out with the Stamps leading 1-0 but trailing in the shot count 22-19.
The Steelers found a way to battle back in the third period as Nate Halvorsen scored his first of two on the power play, beating Merek Pipes at the nine minute mark. Nate Halvorsen grabbed his second of the game, and twenty second of the year at 9:50 and the Steelers went on to defeat the Stampeders 2-1. Final shots on goal 33-24 in favour of the Steelers.
With this afternoons loss, the Stampeders record now sits at 25-8-3-2. Swan Valley will return to action Tuesday January 8th when they travel south to face the Virden Oil Capitals. Puck drop is set for 7:30pm. You can catch all the action live on hockeytv.com.