Steelers hellish night with the Devils

SHEFFIELD, U.K. – The Sheffield Steelers’ short bench took its toll on the players as they were made to work hard for a draw against the Coventry Blaze, and a shootout win which they were fortunate to claim two points over the Devils.

Sheffield played host to the Coventry Blaze at Ice Sheffield on Saturday, there first game in the Challenge Cup and were held to a 2-2 draw against the Warwickshire outfit.
The Steelers were still without the injured trio of Jonathan Phillips (Knee), Chad Huttel (Concussion) and Neil Clark (Ankle) but were boosted by the return of Player/Coach Ryan Finnerty who shrugged off a back injury to take to the ice.
Sheffield dominated a scoreless first period as they outshot the Blaze 12-3, with Blaze goaltender Peter Hirsch making some fine saves to keep the Steelers sharpshooters at bay.
With just over six minutes played in the second period, Steelers Player/coach Ryan Finnerty marked his return to the team as he fired home the first goal of the game, a powerful slapshot from just over the blueline, beating a helpless Hirsch in the Coventry goal.
Luke Fulghum put the visitors back on level terms as he slotted home a neat finish over the shoulder of Steelers goalie John DeCaro to make it 1-1 at 31:53. No further scoring followed in the period, ensuring Paul Thompson’s men were the happier of the two teams in the period break.
Coventry came out firing in the third, and they soon got their break with Owen Fussey netting his twelfth goal of the year at 46:05 to give the visitors the lead for the first time in the game.
The turning point of the game came with just over ten minutes remaining, Coventry were making a routine line change when Steelers goalie John DeCaro fired the puck from his crease purposely at the Blaze bench hoping for a too many men infringement which he duly got.
The smart heads up play by the Steelers shot stopper resulted in a powerplay, where Rod Sarich made no mistake and fired home a blistering slapshot to tie the game up at 2-2 at 49:46.
Both teams pressed, but neither team could find the back of the net in the final ten minutes resulting in a 2-2 tie. Both goaltenders earned their respective teams Man of the Match awards, which were duly deserved.
On Sunday the Steelers travelled down to South Wales to take on their fierce rivals the Cardiff Devils in Elite League action.
Once again both teams couldn’t find the net in the first period, which the Devils out shot the visitors 17-10.
The deadlock was broken at 26:22 after some good work from Mike Ramsay who found Rod Sarich open on the blueline, who then fired home a rocket to put the Steelers ahead 1-0.
Rod Sarich’s opener really spurred the Steelers on, and just 41 seconds later Lee Esders gave his side some more breathing room when he made it 2-0 to the visitors, the goal being Esders first of the season.
Cardiff brought the game to within one at 31:25 when Phil Hill got the hosts on the board after a good feed from Player/Coach Gerad Adams, Hill making no mistake calmly slotting the puck home past his previous employers.
There was no further scoring in the second period, a period that the Devils edged on the shot count by 13-9.
Both teams came out firing in the third, only to be denied by both goaltenders John DeCaro and Stevie Lyle of Sheffield and Cardiff respectively.
Once again, like the previous night an incident in the third period proved to be the turning point of the game. Unfortunately the incident wasn’t in favour of the reigning Elite League Champs, as Rod Sarich was assessed a 2+2+10 penalty for attempted butt-ending.
Devils forward Scott Dobben punished Sarich’s indiscipline by scoring on the resulting powerplay just four seconds later at 58:22. The goal proved vital as overtime beckoned between the two enemies.
Both teams had their chances in overtime, but no one could convert ensuring the game was to be decided by the cruel and nail biting penalty shootout.
The Steelers trio of Mike Ramsay, Steven Birnstill, and Jeff Legue were all denied in their first round shots by Welsh shotstopper Stevie Lyle in the Cardiff goal. Likewise were the trio of Max Birbraer, Jeff Pierce, and Stuart MacRae by John DeCaro.
Then up stepped Mike Ramsay once again, who made no mistake at the second time of asking, who fired neatly passed Stevie Lyle.
It was then the turn of the Devils Max Birbraer who needed to score to keep his team in it, but once again the Steelers John DeCaro denied him to send the travelling Sheffield fans into raptures in the tense affair.
John DeCaro collected his second Man of the Match award of the weekend for his fine performances in the Sheffield goal.
Steelers Player/coach Ryan Finnerty paid tribute to his men after the game, “This was a huge character win and it told me so much about this team. We came here a couple of weeks ago and didn’t compete and deserved the beating the Devils gave us. Tonight we showed that we had learnt that lesson. We competed and we fought like dogs. It was a war here tonight and short benched and beat up we dug deep and simply refused to lose the game,” Finnerty said.
“I can’t tell you how proud I feel right now. This is a massive win, the boys limped back onto the bus, ice packs all over the place. That though is what you have to do to win in Cardiff. That’s what you have to do to win a championship,” Finnerty added.
Sheffield next face the Dundee Stars north of the border on Saturday (15^th October) before playing host to their Arch Rivals the Nottingham Panthers for the first time this season.
Contact the author at Scott.antcliffe@prohockeynews.com