Tuesday 27 February 2018

The Junior Report - Edition 21


Warm appreciation to George for his latest contribution to FSB, All credit for this piece goes to him.


The Sheffield Steelers were up against a fife flyers side who were certainly punching above their weight in terms of what was expected of them at the start of the season domestically. They came to the arena on a Sunday night after taking four points off the steelers in league play over two games.

The game started very well for the Steelers when Matt Marquardt fired top shelf within a minute after they had absorbed some very early pressure. This was a welcoming start as it got the game off to a good start and was also influential in the outcome because with their tails high the Steelers then added a second via a slap shot from Ben O’Connor beating the substitute netminder Marr. Andy Iles having to leave the game early due to an injury picked up in the opening minute. The Steelers added a third through Fretter, whose goal helped the Steelers to a thrashing. He carried the puck a long way to roof over Marr, to make it 3-0. 

The second period was more of the same from the Steelers, more goals coming their way. The fourth came via the stick of Miika Franssila, his backhand cross crease pass got stuck under the pad of marr and into the net through the five hole. Steelers added a fifth through Mathieu Roy, his backhand attempt roofed over the top of Marr to give the Steelers a five goal lead. A sixth was added through Liam Kirk, his breakaway was well finished as he went one on one with Marr, he clipped the post on the finish but no one could really care as it was now six nil to the Steelers. Goal number seven arrived late in the period through Colton Fretter as he benefited from a Mathieu Roy pass which meant for a simple tap in from the great Fretter: this was also scored shorthanded. 

Early in the third period Fife got on the board because of the Steelers changing their goalie, Brad Day played excellent but couldn’t quite reach an Isaacs shot that trickled in via the post. Something for the fans from Kirkcaldy to cheer. The Steelers rounded off get another emphatic victory through Tim Wallace. He got on the end of a rebound right in front of Marr to add an eighth. 

Final score at the arena was 8-1 to the Steelers.

G


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Monday 26 February 2018

From The Editor's Chair: Edition 50


Welcome back to another visit to the views that come "From The Editor's Chair"; the personal views of Mark. It's a landmark edition too as this is the 50th edition of the article. Granted that the article has not been out as often as it was at the start, but I thought it would be a good idea to pen something for you. As ever the views below are not of Sheffield Steelers Ice Hockey Club, it's staff and players: purely me being me.

Some of you might agree with what I am about to go on about, some won't. However, the latter doesn't concern me as I'm just speaking from my viewpoint. So here we go...


This edition will focus on the Steelers season so far, and I am going to separate it into four distinct parts for each competition. That is: the Elite League, the Continental Cup, the Challenge Cup and the Play-Offs. 

Elite League

After Cardiff had won the Elite League last season for the first time ever, and also their first domestic league title in 20 years: we had to step up and bounce back. Looking at the roster which was assembled I had quiet confidence that this was a roster that could actually be in contention for the main prize and possibly win it. It all looked bloody good on paper, but then again most things do don't they? To me, I thought the pre-season was too long in eight games in the space of four weeks. Not many NHL teams have that kind of pre-season preparation.

But what has not really helped our cause is that until recently was the horrendous inter-conference form. Up to December we had picked up just one win from the likes of playing Cardiff, Belfast and Nottingham. The fact we had garnered some many points from the cross-conference games, it was basically pinning our season up. Then after the home loss to Fife, we kinda woke up and started to put a run together with four shutouts in a row either side of Christmas. Top and bottom of it is that the league overall has been patchy/inconsistent at times and that's why we are 16 points behind the Devils going into the games against Belfast and Fife this weekend just concluded.

Conclusion: You can assume that this is why we won't be celebrating the return of the Monteith Bowl for a second successive season. If we had some form similar to that outside of our conference and also not dropped points in games we should have won, away losses at Coventry and Milton Keynes spring immediately to mind, we would be up there. It's terribly infuriating to say the least.

Continental Cup

By winning the play-offs last season, it was us who took the spot in the Continental Cup as opposed to the Belfast Giants. We entered the competition at the third round stage, which was basically the semi-final groups. The boys travelled to Rungsted, and it didn't start off too well as we were taken apart by Belarusians Yunost Minsk. But the team re-grouped and despite having a few wobbles in game two, saw off the hosts after a penalty shoot out. A winners take all game would decide the team who would make the Super Final alongside Minsk, and Steelers produced a polished performance in dig in deep and see off a physical Kurbads Riga team to progress.

The Club made a bid for the Super Final but it was in vain as Minsk were selected by the IIHF to hold it. It started off unfortunately in a familiar pattern as they were beaten comprehensively in game one. Yet in a rematch of the first game in Rungsted, Steelers pushed their hosts to the limit and took a late goal to give Minsk the points when Steelers clearly deserved something out of it. The team finished on a high though, shutting out Italians Ritten 2-0 to ensure it was their opponents who would end up bottom of the pile.

Conclusion: A decent adventure for the team who with a bit more luck, could have replicated the Panthers win in the same competition last season. To make the Super Final is no disgrace whatsoever.

Challenge Cup

The last time that the Steelers won this much maligned competition was in the final year of the ISL before it became the Elite League. Since then they have come close a few times to adding to it but always fell short. This season was no exception to the rule.

As always Steelers made it through the group stages with an impeccable record; 6 wins out of 6: seeing off the Panthers, Clan and Storm. Up next were Omar Pacha and his Dundee Stars, and Steelers continued their winning streak over the former Hull and Manchester head coach by seeing off the Taysiders 13-3 on aggregate. Standing in the way of a Final appearance were the current holders Cardiff, and it all looked rosy when Steelers took the first leg convincingly 6-2. But leg two, saw a monumental collapse...the wait continues!

Conclusion: Once more in my eyes, Steelers did the hard work but failed to finish the job off. A four goal margin should have been more than adequate to make any Final for any club but Steelers choked it. Granted their record in IAW is not great but I half expected them to at least give the Devils a much closer game there. Perhaps I'm asking too much from the team I've supported for the best part of 26 seasons. 

Play-Offs

Last season saw us win the play-offs in the most dramatic of conclusions. The excitement of it all led to me getting a nosebleed for my troubles. I looked like Zack Fitzgerald had rained endless punches on my sweet and innocent face. Levi Nelson just laughed his head off at me when I explained to him post-game that he was to blame. Well, he was.

This season sees the play-off quarter final structure change. Winning your conference means nothing when it comes to the seeding now as it's now a simple format: 1v8, 2v7, 3v6 and 4v5. As the standings lie, we would get the Fife Flyers if the season ended today. I can honestly see a number of changes in these final standings to happen by the final games of the season on 25th March. I also fully expect us to finish in 5th or 6th. Bold prediction indeed. Unless the Bears make a massive push and everyone else messes up, we should avoid them in the final eight. Semi-Finals are the same as last season's format, higher seed plays the lowest ranked seed left in and the two others in the other semi-final. Nothing new there.

Conclusion: Can we make it back-to-back play off wins? Head would like us to of course, my heart thinks otherwise. Our inconsistency could easily trip us up in the quarter-finals. We need to get back into the form which served us so damn well at the end of December and for the main part in January too. Do that, we won't be neutral fans in Nottingham on April 7-8. Just don't give me a double overtime game again or longer, I don't think I could take it. Once is more than enough haha!


Mark


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Steelers ground injury-hit Flyers to go fourth


Welcome to our match report from last night's game against the Fife Flyers.

After losing a controversial game in Belfast on the Saturday night, Steelers headed into Sunday's game at the House Of Steel looking to arrest a two-game losing skid. It was an unchanged team for the Steelers which meant Zack Fitzgerald started for the second successive game, and on the wing. Flyers, who had overcome Nottingham on a penalty shot triumph, arrived in Sheffield with an injury hit roster. Todd Dutiaume's side were missing imports Ian Young, Dan Correale, Evan Bloodoff, former Steeler Brady Ramsay and Danick Gauthier as well as Brit Reece Cochrane. Starting netminder Andy Iles passed a late test and began the game despite concerns he would not finish it.

Steelers had conceded very early in their last two games, but it only took them 42 seconds to open the scoring. Matt Marquardt firing home his 26th goal of the season with a well taken wrist shot that Iles never got close to. Just over 30 seconds later Iles' night was over as he was replaced by Jordan Marr; the netminder showing his anger at being replaced but it was confirmed it was the injury which caused Dutiaume to make such an early decision. It became 2-0 midway through the period, Ben O'Connor flashing home a shot from the blue line which fizzed past Marr. It was Ben's 16th of the season. People were already thinking how many Steelers would rack up, and after failing to convert when offered a 5 on 3 powerplay, Steelers did make it 3-0 before the end of the period. Colton Fretter skating in on Marr and finishing consummately for his 15th of the season, goal timed at 16:23.

The onslaught continued into the middle period with Marr doing well to keep out as many efforts as he could. However, this period was less than three and a half minutes old when Steelers added a fourth on the night. Finnish defenceman Miika Franssila with a backhanded effort that evaded Marr for his second goal as a Steeler. Exactly two minutes later Steelers had gone nap, Mathieu Roy this time being the man on target with another backhand effort. Mathieu's 24th of the campaign. It was enough for Dutiaume as the Flyers coach called a timeout straight after this goal as he tried to stop the haemorrhaging and get his beleaguered troops some respite. Flyers had chances but they were finding Steelers not forgiving in defence and hungry in attack. A sixth goal came at 31:16, Liam Kirk was onto a loose puck and he homed in on Marr before dispatching his 8th goal of the season past him. Still there was time for more, and Flyers night was getting worse as they conceded a shorthanded effort for the Steelers seventh. With Cole Shudra sitting an interference minor, Steelers fashioned out a move and Fretter was on hand to score his second of the evening and goal number 16 this season.

By the time the third period began, Steelers had given Ervins Mustukovs the rest of the night off after the Latvian had saved all 15 shots that Flyers had put on him; Brad Day taking the cage for the final 20 minutes to big cheers. However less than a minute into this final period, the small band of Flyers fans had something cheer about as defenceman James Issacs fired a low shot beyond Day to break the double shutout which your correspondent here had inadvertently mentioned. Yet Steelers still wanted to add more goals but Marr was intent on not letting the goal tally reaching double figures. The final goal did come the Steelers way at 51:34, a rare goal from Tim Wallace when a Marr rebound landed at the forward's feet. It was only a 6th goal of the season for Tim but a first league goal in two months. No further scoring ensued afterwards, and Steelers enjoyed a routine 8-1 win: a result which saw them leapfrog their opponents into 4th.


Time for the statistics:

Goals: Steelers 8 Flyers 1 

Steelers Scoring: O'Connor 1+3. Roy 1+2, Fretter 2+0, Kirk 1+1, Nelson 0+2, Franssila 1+0, Wallace 1+0, Marquardt 1+0, Aarssen 0+1, Valdix 0+1, Matheson 0+1, Shudra 0+1, Fitzgerald 0+1, Neiley 0+1.

Flyers Scoring: Issacs 1+0, Mosey 0+1, Schaber 0+1. 

Shots On Goal:  Steelers 46 Flyers 24 

Powerplay: Steelers 0 from 3 (0% conversion), Flyers 0 from 6 (0% conversion)

Penalty Minutes called: Steelers 14 Flyers 8

Steelers Goaltender Stats: Mustukovs 15 Saves (1202), GAA: o.00 (2.31), Save Percentage: 100.00% (91.80%). Day 8 Saves (27), GAA: 3.00 (2.27), Save Percentage: 88.90% (93.10%).

Man of the Match: Ben O'Connor (Steelers), James Issacs (Flyers)


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Sunday 25 February 2018

Controversy as Steelers fall to Giants


Welcome to our match report from last night's game away to the Belfast Giants.

Steelers headed into their game against the Giants in need of an instant bounce back after being shutout at home by Cardiff in midweek. Giants, on the other hand, were looking for a bounce back of their own. Adam Keefe's men had picked up a blank home weekend the weekend previous when they lost to the league's bottom two sides; Edinburgh and Milton Keynes. Steelers showed two changes from the team that lost to Cardiff, Kieran Brown was playing for Blackburn as part of his two-way deal with the NIHL side whilst there was a recall for Zack Fitzgerald as he replaced the injured Jonas Westerling. Giants were without Mark Garside, Jim Vandermeer and David Rutherford.

Needing a better start to the game than they did on Wednesday, Steelers managed it. However, only by 42 seconds as they conceded the opening goal of the game at 1:12. A give and go between Blair Riley and Sebastian Sylvestre saw the Giants captain light the lamp past Ervins Mustukovs. Both teams then started to pick a few penalties, Steelers excellent penalty killers showing why it's head and shoulders above anyone else's in the Elite League with a superb double penalty kill in the closing stages of that opening period.

Steelers needed a response and they got it in the first three and a bit minutes of the middle period. With Giants Jeff Mason sitting an interference minor, the ever impressive Mark Matheson orchestrated another powerplay goal. His pass found fellow defenceman Miika Franssila and whilst Jackson Whistle stopped the Finn's effort, there was nothing he could do to prevent Matt Marquardt burying home the puck for the forward's 25th of the season. A 5 on 3 powerplay chance came in the closing stages of this period, this time for the Giants, but it was the Giants penalty killers who replicated the Steelers' efforts of that in the opening period with a well executed double kill and the teams left the ice after 40 minutes play: locked at 1 goal apiece.

Both teams gave it their all in the final period, racking an astonishing 33 shots between them to leave the shot count at 38 each. However, one of them made all the difference and the destination of the points. It went the way of the Giants. Veteran forward Steve Saviano crashed the net and the puck found its way in. However, Steelers coach Paul Thompson was far from impressed with it as he thought that Saviano had taken out Mustukovs into the net with the puck. The officials didn't agree, and adjudged it was momentum so the goal stood. Mustukovs was sacrificed with 1:46 to go but Steelers couldn't get that all important goal which would have gained them a point minimum and Giants snapped that losing streak whilst extending Steelers' losing one to two games.


Time for the statistics:

Goals: Giants 2 Steelers 1

Steelers Scoring: Marquardt 1+0, Franssila 0+1, Matheson 0+1.

Giants Scoring: Saviano 1+0, Riley 1+0, Sylvestre 0+1, Kurtz 0+1, Raine 0+1, Ferland 0+1

Shots On Goal:  Steelers 38 Giants 38 

Powerplay: Steelers 1 from 6 (17% conversion), Giants 0 from 6 (0% conversion)

Penalty Minutes called: Steelers 12 Giants 12

Steelers Goaltender Stats: Mustukovs 36 Saves (1187), GAA: 2.06 (2.35), Save Percentage: 94.70% (91.70%).

Man of the Match: Matt Marquardt (Steelers), Jackson Whistle (Giants)


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