Update from Bolzano

BOLZANO, ITALY – 2 wins from 2 games sets up potential last game decider tomorrow night for Britain’s Sheffield Steelers. Last night in the Italian town of Bolzano the Steelers went into their opening game against Dutch side The Hague on a bit of a downer over recent league form. However things were dramatically turned around as they defeated their rivals 4-3 in a thrilling game that neither side was able to pull away from the other. Steelers forwards Jeff Legue and Joey Talbot were the main danger men for the Steelers with Legue picking up 2 goals and an assist with Talbot getting 1+3, while British defenceman Mark Thomas scored the other goal. Head Coach Dave Matsos told the Steelers website “I’m pleased with what I saw, very pleased. We had a very long travel day yesterday and that took it out of us, we skated this morning and we needed that skate to get the cobwebs out of our legs. “I thought we played well, the Dutch had a lot of power play chances but I always thought we were in control and in Jeff Legue we had a star player who was on a mission. Andrew Verner was solid in goal, the D were strong and gave little away and we created up front”. In the other game yesterday hosts Bolzano beat Maribor 6-2 in a one-sided game that Bolzano outshot the Slovenian side 42-17. In this afternoon’s first game the Steelers were in action again and things clicked once again as they picked up a 5-4 win over Maribor to set up what promises to be a very exciting encounter tomorrow evening at 19:00 GMT against host side Bolzano.

Joey Talbot was the hero for the Steelers again, and not just on the ice. Suffering a virus, Talbot spent the day in hospital on a drip but was determined to play in the game and got himself to the rink and played and even set up the game winner for linemate Matt Hubbauer who scored his hat-trick on the same goal. A brace for Brad Cruikshank ensured the Steelers go into tomorrow’s game with it all to play for. Home advantage and support may prove to be the difference for the home side, but the noisy and proud Steelers fans will no doubt be doing their all to will their side on to victory. Steelers GM Mike O’Connor is sure that the team are focussed on the task in hand “Maribor were a strong side and they caused problems for us, but we found a way to win though. These games are building confidence in the camp and we now have a tough game against Bolzano. There is no reason why we can’t win it” Captain Jonathan Phillips paid tribute to his team mates and in particular Talbot “Joe Talbot led us tonight. I might have worn the ‘C’ but Joey showed true leadership. He is very ill right now and was in the hospital all day, yet comes here and gets dressed to play. Then he gets an assist on the winner. That’s a leader. That’s a man who cares.“We have now given ourselves a chance, Bolzano will be tough, very tough, but there isn’t a reason why we can’t win this group. No reason at all”. The final games are tomorrow afternoon with The Hague and Maribor facing off at 15:30 and then the expected ‘winner takes all’ final game between the Steelers and Bolzano. Live coverage of the Steelers V Bolzano game is provided by Prohockeynews’ own “Big Dave” via http://steelnightlive.wordpress.com/ Coverage begins at 19:45GMT. Comment on this story Pete.Lewis@Prohockeynews.com