After 5 years without Silverware the Steelers have finally won the Play-Offs again. After a Season that was billed as the season that the Steelers would walk away with the League Title under the leadership of Doug Christiansen. That claim went south by about mid-season, and after a brief spell with the senior players taking charge of the team while an interim coach was found. Nobody in their wildest dreams would expect anything other than another season without Silverware.
Then owner Tony Smith brings in recently released Cardiff Devils Coach gerad Adams, Adams then starts to make the Steelers his own team with the addition of Phil Hill and Chris Blight, and the Steelers slowly start to improve and gel as a team with some fairly consistent results against the likes of Belfast & Nottingham.
With the League Title now out of sight it left the Challenge Cup and Playoffs as the targets for the Steelers, after a bad run of luck in the Challenge Cup semi-final series against the Panthers everything seemed to be going wrong for the newly rejuvenated Steelers side.
After securing second place in the league all sights then turned to the Playoffs, after a Quarter final series that saw the Braehead Clan become the first Scottish team to reach the Playoff Finals weekend and a solid Quarter-final series that saw the Steelers join the Belfast Giants, Fife Flyers & Braehead Clan in Finals Weekend the Steelers spirit returned for the first time in 3 years.
After 2 close Semi-Finals on Saturday saw the Leagues top 2 teams face each other in the Final on Sunday. After a close and tense 60 Mins of Hockey that saw no team able to break the 2-2 deadlock, the Final went to 20 Mins Overtime that saw Drew Fata become a Steelers hero at 1:34 into the extra Period after an amazing strike went past Stephen Murphy and sealed the victory for the Steelers.
Unfortunately what was an amazing final that I’d have loved to have been able to have watched or even listened to, but was left following via Twitter due to technical reasons wa marred by a minority of Panthers Fans chanting “We Hate Steelers” during the National Anthem.
An up and down Steelers Season ended in what still feels like a dream to the fans and could be the start of a new era for the Steelers. Now that Gerad Adams has proven that he’s capable of winning Silverware with the Steelers Tony Smith should start working on a Contract to keep Adams at the Steelers.
You can talk about this piece with Roland on Twitter using his handle @Roly25
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