Steelers celebrate another successful four point weekend

SHEFFIELD, U.K. – The Sheffield Steelers secured another four-point weekend once again, after returning from an unsuccessful trip to Denmark in the Continental Cup.

Steelers carried on their fine domestic form with a routine win over the Cardiff Devils and a battling road win over the Hull Stingrays.
Sheffield first hosted the Cardiff Devils on Saturday (3^rd of December) boosted by the arrival of new import Luke Fulghum and the return of influential Captain Jonathan Phillips from injury.
Cardiff came out firing in a first period, which they dominated out shooting the Steelers 19-9. The hosts were on the score sheet first thanks to a neat finish from defenceman Steve Birnstill who netted at 16:05 to make it 1-0 to the South Yorkshire side.
No further scoring followed in a period in which Sheffield goaltender John DeCaro stole the limelight with some impressive saves, keeping the visitors at bay.
The Steelers doubled their lead at 32:27 thanks to a trademark Jeff Legue blistering wrist shot after a good pass from Colt King to make it 2-0.
Cardiff looked dumfounded when Steelers defenceman Matt Stephenson skated through the Devils defence to backhand home a nice finish at 33:13 to give his team a 3-0 lead.
The Devils weren’t going to lie down and take a beating and they clawed their way back into the game courtesy of a nice goal from Scott Matzka at 33:32 after a good feed from Kenton Smith.
The visitors brought the game to within a goal when Kenton Smith turned from provider to scorer at 38:45 to ensure an interesting third period making it 3-2 to the Steelers still.
The Devils came out firing in the third period out shooting the hosts once again by 16-6. Both teams hit the pipe work in the final period, but it was top be the Steelers who would fins the back of the net with the last goal coming from Jeff Legue shorthanded at 53:11 ensuring Sheffield claimed the 4-2 victory and the all important three points.
Legue claimed the official Man of the Match award for his brace of goals, but many fans and the Steelers Player/Coach Ryan Finnerty believed Steelers goaltender John DeCaro should have claimed that honour after turning away 48 of 50 shots, “ I thought John was the difference tonight. I didn’t think as a team we played our best game. We were a little to open for my liking, we gave Cardiff too many chances and we all owe DeCaro after that performance. He was rock solid, certainly in the first two periods he stood on his head, we relied on his far too much,” Finnerty said.
Sheffield then made the short journey to Hull 24 hours later to take on the Stingrays, and they came away with a 3-2 overtime victory, in a game, which they were beyond convincing in.
The Stingrays got off to the perfect start when Jereme Tendler caught the Steelers off guard netting after just 20 seconds to make it 1-0 to his team.
Sheffield were shell-shocked but soon replied thanks to Luke Fulghum netting his first in Steelers colours with a neat top shelf finish to tie the game up at 5:03.
Sheffield came out firing in the second period, which they out shot their hosts by 10-7. Steelers Player/Coach Ryan Finnerty netted the only goal of the second period at 29:40 after a neat pass from Ashley Tait to give the Steelers a 2-1 lead.
Both teams pressed but couldn’t find a way past their oppositions net minders in Christian Boucher and John DeCaro of Hull and Sheffield respectively.   
Sheffield came out the stronger of the two teams in the third period once again, but the only goal of the period was to come from Hull veteran Jason Silverthorn as he netted his fourteenth of the season to tie the game up at 2-2 with less than five minutes remaining.
Both teams came close in the final five minutes, but the buzzer sounded signifying that the game would be settled in extra time.
Just thirty-four seconds had been played in overtime when Sheffield forward Mike Ramsay earned hero status for the night when he fired home a superb goal to settle the game and snatch the extra point on offer in overtime to make it 3-2 to the Steelers.
Sheffield Steelers Player/Coach Ryan Finnerty praised Hull and shared his thoughts on the game, “That was a close one. You have to give Hull credit because they battled. I thought we played very well, we created enough chances to have won the game earlier but Hull wouldn’t give up,” Finnerty said.
“The 2-2 goal was down to fatigue. Our 4 D men have been brilliant, they played 3 games in 3 days last week and then 2 in 2 tonight. You can’t put into words how much that takes out of you. It’s also why it is important to have the new guy come in on Tuesday,” Finnerty admitted.
The new guy that Finnerty mentioned was today announced as 28-year-old French-Canadian Francis Trudel.
Trudel joins from Saguenay Marquis of the LNAH where he shared a dressing room for six games with former EIHL enforcer Sean McMorrow.
Before that Trudel spent two seasons with Lørenskog in Norway and one with Valpellice in Italy.
Finnerty spoke about his new acquisition, “ We are lucky to have signed Trudel. We had several options and Trudel became available at the eleventh hour. Once I had taken references I was in no doubt that this was the player for us. All the reports I have received suggest he is a highly skilled player who knows his own end of the rink and will help us defensively,” Finnerty said.
The signing of Trudel will give Finnerty a headache as it means the team are carrying a spare import. Will Finnerty choose to coach from behind the bench? Or will he sit one of the other imports he has at his disposal? Time will tell.
The Steelers now face a hectic schedule of three games in three nights this weekend, as they host the Belfast Giants on Friday (9^th December) before travelling to Coventry on the Saturday, then returning to the Motorpoint Arena to host the Braehead Clan on the Sunday (11^th December).
Contact the author at Scott.antcliffe@prohockeynews.com