SHEFFIELD, U.K. – The Sheffield Steelers carried on their fine form with their fourth straight win after back to back home shutouts against Hull and Fife. Scoring 11 goals in the process.
Another four points in the bag for the Steelers
The Hull Stingrays were the first visitors to the ‘House of Steel’ on Saturday evening, but they left three hours later disappointed after a 6-0 mauling at the hands of Ryan Finnerty’s squad.
Sheffield took the lead early thanks to a powerplay goal from Mike Ramsay after just 90 seconds making it 1-0 to the hosts.
Great Britain international Ashley Tait doubled his teams advantage when he netted his first goal of the season at 12:17 after some good work from linemate Lee Esders, to make it 2-0 to the reigning EIHL champs.
With just over three minutes remaining in the first period, Steelers hot shot Neil Clark netted his eighth goal of the season after a great feed from Steelers stand in Captain Jeff Legue, to add further misery to the Stingrays night.
Sheffield dominated the first period out shooting their fellow Yorkshire counterparts 12-5.
A fairly even second period resulted in no goals being scored by either team, with the only point of interest being a bout between Steelers rugged defenceman Matt Stephenson and Stingrays forward Dominic Osman with the Steelers defenceman claiming honours in the fight.
After the battle of the pugilists the game resumed and it went back to the battle of the goaltenders, with both Christian Boucher and John DeCaro of Hull and Sheffield respectively, making some great saves keeping each other at bay.
DeCaro eventually went on to earn his first shutout of the season.
It was business as usual in the third period for Sheffield as Ashley Tait netted his second of the game at 45:22 to give the hosts a comfortable 4-0 lead.
Mike Ramsay completed his brace at 50:33 with a neat finish with Steelers defenceman Rod Sarich supplying the ammunition.
Steelers Player/Coach Ryan Finnerty netted his team’s sixth and final goal of the night with just over a minute of the game remaining, sending the 4,376 fans into raptures with their fine shutout display.
Finnerty shared his thoughts after the game “I thought this was the first game this season that we played for 60 minutes. It was an all around solid performance. I was delighted the goals were spread around, we moved the lines about so we would achieve some secondary scoring and that worked. Ashley Tait had a big 4 point night which was pleasing to see,” Finnerty said.
Geoff Woolhouse earns a well deserved shutout (picture courtesy of Sheffield Steelers)
Sheffield then hosted the Fife Flyers for the first time since 2005 on the Sunday evening.
Sheffield were without the trio of Ryan Finnerty, Neil Clark, and Chad Huttel who were all nursing minor injuries and are expected to be back next weekend. Back up goaltender Geoff Woolhouse was also given the go ahead, much like his opposite number in the Fife goal, Blair Daly.
A fairly even first period only had a Colt King goal to show for it when the towering power forward netted the first goal of the game on the powerplay at 15:17.
Sheffield edged Fife on the shot count 11-10 with both British goaltenders earning their crust, displaying some wonderful netminding between the pipes.
Steelers Player/Assistant Coach Ashley Tait then fired home his third goal of the weekend at 36:56 after some good work from defenceman Matt Stephenson paving the way for the goal.
The period was all but over when Jeff Legue hammered home the third goal of the game with just 92 seconds of the period remaining.
Sheffield were the happier of the two teams in the period break leading 3-0 in a period where they out shot the visitors 20-4!
Sheffield came out strong once again in the third, with Tom Squires making the most of his increase in ice time due to the injuries by netting his first goal of the season at 43:46 to make it 4-0.
Steelers D-man Rod Sarich rounded off the scoring with the Steelers fifth and final goal with a bullet from the blueline at 59:35.
The game was all but over, with just over five minutes remaining when Steelers agitator Jason Hewitt was boarded nastily by Flyers’ forward Steve McAlpine. Hewitt took exception to the hit and when he made his way to his feet, he soon invited McAlpine to drop his gloves which he duly obliged, claming an easy victory over Hewitt who was fighting with his shirt that he had over his head for the majority of the fight rather than McAlpine. Colt King was also given a ten-minute misconduct penalty for Abuse of an official during the incident ensuring King left the ice for an early shower. With King away from the ice surface, the Flyers’ stepped up the physical stakes, something which was subdued from them before King was given his marching orders.
The underhand tactics and blatant disregard of the unwritten enforcers code from Fife overshadowed what was an entertaining game for the 3,999 in attendance at the Sheffield Motorpoint Arena.
Fife goaltender Blair Daly who was deputising for regular starter Garrett Zemlak (out with concussion) was robbed of the Man of The Match award, after an excellent display of goaltending turning away 37 of the 42 shots, to keep the scoreline respectable, which on another night the Steelers would have reached double figures.
Steelers own goaltender Geoff Woolhouse was fully worthy of his shut out and Man of The Match award for his own clinical netminding showcase.
Steelers Player/Coach Ryan Finnerty watched from the bench, but he gave special praise to the netminders, “I give both goalies a tonne of credit but also give the guys in front of them a tonne too. They played hard and worked like warriors out there. It’s hard to do that on the second game of a weekend when you are so short handed. They deserve their day off today that’s for sure,” Finnerty said.
Contact the author at Scott.antcliffe@prohockeynews.com
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