SHEFFIELD, U.K. – The Sheffield Steelers season came to an end on Sunday evening after an 8-6 aggregate loss to the Coventry Blaze in the Playoff quarter final.
The Steelers travelled to the West Midlands to take on the Blaze on Saturday evening and within half an hour, they found themselves trailing by five goals. The South Yorkshire side rallied and scored three unanswered goals from Vestberg, Dowd and Desbiens to reduce the arrears to two in a tempestuous affair.
Mathieu Roy levels on the night for the Steelers (Image courtesy of Dean Woolley)
The Steelers hosted the Blaze 24-hours-later on home ice with 6410 fans hoping to see their side advance to the final four weekend in Nottingham.
It took the visiting Blaze just 66 seconds to break the deadlock after some great work along the boards behind the net from Cale Tanaka who found Russ Cowley all alone in front of net, the veteran forward calmly slotted the luck low past Steelers netminder Marek Pinc to make it 1-0 on the night.
A feisty opening period saw both teams share sixteen minutes in penalties. At 11:19 Blaze defenceman Josh Godfrey was assessed an interference minor, and two minutes later former Steeler Jim Jorgensen was handed a slashing minor, giving the Steelers a 5-on-3 powerplay.
The hosts duly took advantage with Mathieu Roy re-directing a Ben O’Connor shot from the point low through Brian Stewart’s five hole to level on the night 1-1.
With the momentum well and truly in the Steelers favour, it wasn’t long before they added a second. A pass intended for Tyler Mosienko from Jace Coyle took an unfortunate deflection into the net from Blaze defenceman James Isaacs skate to edge the Steelers ahead 2-1.
Despite further pressure in the opening period with Vestberg firing agonisingly close with a wide open net the Steelers headed into the period break with a slender 2-1 lead and trailing by one goal on aggregate after outshooting the Blaze 12-6.
The second period was a more evenly contested affair, and with emotions running high from the opening period, the second lacked the intensity and physicality of the first period.
A Colton Fretter powerplay marker gave the Steelers a 3-1 lead and tied the aggregate score at 6-6. With Guillaume Desbiens providing a perfect screen in front of Brian Stewart, Fretter picked his spot low corner glove side much to the jubilation of the vociferous home support at 30:17.
Despite late efforts from the Steelers’ O’Connor, Dowd and Legue and efforts from Lauzon and Pietrus of the Blaze, no further scoring followed in the middle stanza, one in which the Steelers narrowly outshot the Blaze by 11-8.
Brian Stewart celebrates at the final buzzer (Image courtesy of Dean Woolley)
The Blaze re-grouped and came out of the gates flying in the third period. Early efforts from Chris Bruton, Brett Robinson and Cale Tanaka in quick succession put the hosts on the backfoot.
At 48:56 the pressure paid off when Brenden Walker dispossessed Tyler Mosienko from the puck behind the Steelers net and Walker played a superb pass to Drew Fisher who backhanded past Pinc to bring the game to within a goal and edge Blaze ahead 7-6 on aggregate.
A nervy final ten minutes saw chances come from Levi Nelson and Mathieu Roy, but Stewart was more than equal to the test.
At 58:31 Steelers Head Coach Paul Thompson called a timeout in desperate hope to rally his troops and also pulled netminder Marek Pinc in favour of an extra attacker.
With just 12 seconds remaining Great Britain international Russ Cowley added his second of the game as he intercepted an errant Cullen Eddy pass and fired the puck into the empty net, securing the Blaze’s place in the final four at Coventry giving the Blaze an 8-6 aggregate victory.
The Steelers Man of the Match was jointly awarded to Jason Hewitt and Jeff Legue, who announced their retirement from the sport a few days earlier. Both men took an emotional lap of the arena to the cheers of the crowd, showing respect to two players who gave their all for the teal and orange.
Jeff Legue and Jason Hewitt with a lap of honour in their final games before retirement (Image courtesy of Dean Woolley)
Players come and go, but Hewitt and Legue were part of the Steelers furniture. With a combination of 1228 games played and 886 points between them as well as lifting four League titles, three Playoff titles, and a Knockout Cup they were true winners.
The memories they have given fans, as well as the blood, sweat and tears whilst giving it their all in a Steelers jersey will be fondly remembered.
Contact the author at Scott.antcliffe@prohockeynews.com
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