SHEFFIELD,U.K-The Sheffield Steelers faced a tough series of fixtures over the Christmas period playing five games in ten days, the South Yorkshire side kicked off their Christmas campaign on December 20 at home to a resurgent Newcastle Vipers side, aided by the signings of Jeff Hutchins and former Steeler Ed Courtenay. The Vipers came away with an impressive 4-1 victory against the league leaders. Both former Steelers players Rob Wilson and Ed Courtenay came back to haunt their former employers, by scoring a goal each in the second period to give Vipers a 2-0 lead. Ben Campbell added to the Vipers lead with six minutes remaining in the game. Steelers grabbed a consolation goal on the powerplay from defenseman Scott Basiuk. The game was put beyond reach with 35 seconds remaining, as Derek Campbell scored an empty net goal to secure both points for the visitors.
Vipers player-coach Rob Wilson had words of advice for his former team after the game, “I thought Sheffield were just too nice against us, I think they are the best team and they should go on to win the championship, they have all of the other tools, skill, speed, a great D, great depth up front, the only thing is that they are all just to nice.” Wilson said
The Steelers bounced back 24 hours later on the road to Manchester Phoenix, coming away with a 3-1 win, but were made to work hard for it. One goal separated the teams in the first period, and it went to the home team, scored by Luke Fulgham on the powerplay. Jeff Legue and captain Jonathan Phillips grabbed the goals in the second session to give the Steelers a 2-1 lead. Steelers put the game beyond reach scoring an empty net goal through Great Britain international Ashley Tait with ten seconds remaining.
Steelers Head-coach Dave Matsos (Photo by Mark Tredgold)
Steelers then faced arch rivals the Nottingham Panthers on Boxing Day in front of 7,125 people at the Sheffield Arena. The crowd was in for a treat with great goals, fights, and controversy.
Five minutes into the game Ryan Finnerty (Sheffield) and Bruce Richardson (Nottingham) renewed acquaintances, having their third fight with Finnerty gaining the upper hand. The momentum from the fight spurred Finnerty on to score the opener, on the powerplay. The celebrations were short lived as the Panthers scored on the powerplay four minutes later.
In the second period the home side increased their lead with a powerplay marker from Rob Dowd, and then added to this ten minutes later through Ashley Tait, with yet another powerplay goal. The second period ended with some controversy as Steelers power forward Brad Cruikshank was ejected from the game with a dubious 5+ Game penalty for high sticks.
The Panthers upped the tempo in the third period with a goal two minutes in from Brendan Cook. Panthers frustrations then began to show as they ran into penalty trouble. Steelers top scorer Joey Talbot took advantage of this with a 5 on 3 powerplay goal, and the game was put beyond reach by Rob Dowd bagging a brace, a minute later. The game finished 5-2 to the Steelers.
The two sides then met again in Nottingham 24 hours later in front of another crowd in excess of 7,000. The ceremonial puck drop was carried out by Nottingham-born boxer Carl Froch which seemed to inspire both teams’ heavyweights, as Brad Cruikshank (Sheffield) and Rumun Ndur (Nottingham) dropped the gloves three seconds into the game.
The opening period remained scoreless as both teams had plenty of chances, but were kept out by fine goaltending courtesy of Jody Lehman and Michel Robinson, of Sheffield and Nottingham respectively. The second period was much the same and it remained 0-0 going into the third period.
Steelers broke the deadlock courtesy of Joey Talbot. Panthers quickly levelled through Brendan Cook, scoring his second in as many days against the Steelers. It remained 1-1 after regulation, but Matt Myers soon had the home crowd in raptures grabbing the winner 56 seconds into overtime, securing the win and extra point for the Panthers.
Steelers Head Coach Dave Matsos shared his thoughts after the game, “Firstly give Nottingham credit, I thought they played very well, they worked hard, created and attacked us, Jody had to make some stunning saves, on the flip side I didn’t think we were at our best, we didn’t do the things we normally do, we didn’t get the puck in really deep on their D and then go to work on them, that disappointed me slightly,” Matsos said
The Steelers then rounded off 2008 with a road trip to Northern Ireland, to face the Belfast Giants.
Jeff Legue opened the scoring for the Steelers in the first period with a short-handed marker. Malcolm Macmillan equalised for the home side four minutes into the second period to keep the Giants in the running. Robert Dowd continued his fine form for the Steelers scoring a powerplay goal ten minutes later to regain the lead for the Steelers.
Belfast Giants were determined to not go down without a fight, and got their reward with 39 seconds remaining in the second period, with another powerplay goal courtesy of Paul Deniset.
Steelers then grabbed the winner with nine minutes to go with an
Jody Lehman (Photo by Mark Tredgold)
Sheffield Head Coach Dave Matsos was furious with his team’s performance, but he did however praise goaltender Jody Lehman, “We were a bad hockey team tonight, we will take the two points but I am furious with our performance, I don’t want to camouflage things, we just weren’t good tonight,” Matsos said “Jody was our Saviour tonight, Simply outstanding, I think that sums Jody up this evening.”
Steelers will be hoping to keep up their winning ways in the new year, with the next three games being against, Hull Stingrays (home) Coventry Blaze (away) and then Cardiff Devils (home).
Contact the author at Scott.Antcliffe@prohockeynews.com.
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