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Steelers roll to 5-0 win over St. Mary’s

Dunkirk-Fredonia Steelers’ Alex Rush pushes the puck up ice during a game last season in Fredonia. OBSERVER File Photo.

Coming into the season, one problem potentially facing the Dunkirk-Fredonia Steelers, according to their head coach Michael Rakoska, was their goaltending. With both incumbents — Tim Rasey and Anthony Fitz-Gerald — being sophomores, Rakoska predicted there would be some mistakes early on before his team their stride.

That doubt was silenced on Sunday afternoon.

The Steelers played themselves to a 5-0 victory over St. Mary’s at Steele Hall on Sunday, dominating in pretty much every facet of the game, with Rasey stopping all of the shots he faced.

“It’s been pretty shocking, they’re both sophomores,” Rakoska said. “I didn’t really know what I had, it’s hard for sophomores to play against the older kids, but Timmy (Rasey) has really taken the reins and he’s playing solid. None of the goals we’ve given up have been bad, which is impressive for a sophomore. He’s shown a lot of poise for someone his age.”

The Steelers got off to a hot start, netting two goals in the first period. The first one came early, just six minutes in, on a loose puck in front of the net, when Dawson Bird was there to clean up the rebound, putting his team ahead 1-0. They added another goal just a few minutes later, when Mike Norton took the puck strong to the net, causing some defensive confusion. The rebound squeaked out in front of open net, and Alex Paluch was there this time for the Steelers to take a 2-0 lead. Normally, teams with a two-goal lead are confident, but playing with the lead has been one of the problems facing the Steelers this season.

“We were up against St. Joes last night, and we kind of took our foot off the gas at the end,” Rakoska said. “We’ve been doing that quite a bit the last couple games, getting leads and not holding them. I told them today we have to get a full three periods, we can’t just play two periods then coast through the third. We didn’t let our foot off the gas today.”

This game though, the Steelers kept going strong. They netted one goal in the second on a shot by Tate Olsen, then two more in the third, when captain Zach Korzeniewski found twine, and Norton capped off the strong Steelers effort on a breakaway, when buried a beautiful backhander top shelf.

It’s been an up and down season for the Steelers so far, who now find themselves 4-4 on the season. Their biggest problem on the season is holding leads, with the most recent example on Saturday, when the Steelers led 2-0 over St. Joes and ended up falling, 3-2. Rakoska knows those are just the rowing pains come with having a young team.

“Our defense is young too, they’re going to make some mistakes,” Rakoska said. “That really hurt us yesterday, but they were much better today. They didn’t make mistakes, and they made the smart plays.”

The Steelers are next in action over the weekend, where they’ll have a series of games, with one home game on Saturday, Dec. 21 at 4:15 p.m. against City Honors/O’Hara. Rakoska thinks his team needs to crash the net more to have better success over the weekend.

“We need traffic in front of the net. That’s the biggest thing we’re missing right now,” Rakoska said. “We possess the puck real well, we move the puck real well, but when we get shots, the goalie sees it, and when there are rebounds, we’re not there to get them. If we can clean that up and do that more, the second half of the season should be much better for us.”

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