Miller Leads Steel In Victory Over Fargo

Bensenville (January 3rd, 2009) -- Andrew Miller (Yale University) extended his career-high point streak to nine games, and Nick Pisellini turned aside 30 shots to help the Chicago Steel to a come-from-behind 5-3 win Saturday night.

Fargo scored the only goal of the first period with six minutes remaining when Chase Grant created a turnover in the Chicago zone and backhanded the puck past Pisellini.

Midway through the second, Miller tied the game with a power play goal, poking a rebound past Fargo netminder Mike Lee, but two and a half minutes later, Fargo regained the lead.

The Steel had a chance to tie it at two with just under 3 minutes left in the 2nd, but Lee and the Force defense held Chicago off.  Seconds later Fargo's Josh Birkholz created a scoring chance for himself and gave Fargo a two-goal lead entering the third period.

But early in the third, Chicago's Alex Carpenter found a loose puck to the right of Lee and scored his first career USHL goal to cut the deficit to one.

Midway through the third, Miller struck again, beating two Force defenseman down the right-wing side and slid the puck under Lee to tie the game at three.

The score remained tied late into the third, when John Moore (Colorado College) ripped a slap shot from the high slot over Lee's glove to give Chicago their first lead of the night.  Dean Chelios sealed the victory with an empty net goal in the final minute.

The Steel hit the road for their next two games, at Cedar Rapids and at Green Bay.  They return to home ice Sunday, January 11th for a 3:00 p.m. game against the Des Moines Buccaneers.  Tickets can be ordered by calling the Steel Box Office at 630.594.1165.

Notes:  Miller scored his 20th and 21st goals on the season in the winning effort, becoming the first player in the league to reach the 20 goal mark.  He has at least one goal in each of his last four games, tallying 8 goals in that span.  Miller is also only one point shy of being the first player in the league with 50 points.