Back again for Edition Number 47! Your principal Editor-in-Chief Mark is back with his personal thoughts. This week he plans to bring you not one article, but two. How's that for spoiling you lovely people? The subject he is going to talk about in this particular one is his recap of the Steelers Continental Cup performance.
Yes he wasn't there, work commitments denied him so, but he's here with some thoughts on how he saw it.
Well it was off to Denmark for the Steelers and over 200 fanatical supporters as they embarked on a European Tour, 2017 version. After winning the play-offs in such dramatic style in April, a game that we will never ever forget as long as we all live, Steelers were in the Continental Cup. This is the silverware that our nearest and dearest managed to win in Ritten, Italy last season. Could the Steelers make the Super Final and emulate them first of all, and also make their own second Super Final after making this stage in 2010.
Our first opponents on the Friday were Belarusian Champions Yunost Minsk. This was the second meeting of the two sides, as they met in the afore mentioned Super Final with the team from Belarus winning that one 4-1. What happened Friday was a case of Minsk being clinical in offence and the Steelers defence being ripped to shreds. The score was 6-0 by the end of the second, causing Paul Thompson to replace starting netminder Ervins Mustukovs with back up Brad Day for the final twenty and the Huddersfield born goaltender did well: only letting in one further goal and that was on a late powerplay. Steelers sole strike came from the stick of Robert Dowd with a very confident finish.
Not the best of starts, right?
Over 24 hours fast forward, and Steelers were into game two and the late game of the day as they played the tournament hosts Rungsted Seier Capital. When I saw the score show as 3-0 early in the second period, I could have been forgiven to think it was all deja vu from the previous game. Once more Steelers had shipped three goals without reply to an opponent, and twice in as many days. But cometh the moment, cometh a man on a mission. Having being harshly penalised for a hook, Matt Marquardt was like a man possessed. He literally hauled the Steelers back into the hockey game, assisting on the opening two strikes. Dowd's second in as many nights made it 3-3 and parity restored but with the teams looking set for a 3-3 score after two, Marquardt's former Coventry team-mate Robin Bergman restored the Danes' lead.
But the Steelers didn't panic at all. They kept pressing and with less than six minutes left Levi Nelson scored his second of the game to tie it up again, this time at 4-4. More chances followed, and Marquardt was unlucky not to win the game in the five minute overtime period with a shot that clanged against the pipework. However in the resultant shootout, he was not to be denied with a superb penalty shot that gave the goalie no chance whatsoever. Under pressure Swede Jonas Westerling added to his goal in the game with an equally well taken effort, and Mustukovs shut the door on the home shooters: securing the win with a save in the fourth round.
This set up a winner takes all final game on Sunday lunchtime against Latvians Kurbads Riga. Knowing what they needed to do, Steelers set out to attack and put their opponents on the back foot. However, the game exploded into life just shy of the ten minute when the experienced Martins Cipulis was ejected on a 5+Game call for boarding Nelson which looked nasty but the talismanic winger was ruled OK to carry after a spot of treatment. This gave Steelers a major powerplay and just over a minute into it, Westerling cut in and fired home a shot that just arrowed itself into the net. A minute later though, Kurbads levelled matters when Gatis Gricinskis held off Mark Matheson to steer the puck home shorthanded. Again the Steelers didn't panic and with more powerplay time left scored twice through Mathieu Roy and Nelson.
However, the Latvians didn't go away quietly despite the absence of a key player. With Scott Aarssen off for slashing, the Kurbads powerplay went to work and from the blue line former Cardiff Devil Martins Gipters found the net with Mustukovs unable to stop it. More player clashes happened as the game came to a first period, Westerling notably taking exception to a questionable bit of play on his team-mate. In the second period, it seemed like a back to the walls job but it was definitely that in the third as Kurbads piled on the pressure. Andre Deveaux was the victim of a clear glove to the eye in the final ten minutes which the officials only saw as roughing and gave the Steelers forward a coincidental minor plus an extra two. Staggering. Steelers were putting it all on the line as they resolutely defended this margin and with 67 seconds faced a late powerplay when Nelson picked up a high sticking decision against him. By this time Kurbads had sacrificed their goalie for an extra attacker so it was a 6 on 4 powerplay. But still Steelers refused to succumb and with just four seconds left, Ben O'Connor sealed the deal and a place in the Super Final with an empty netter from deep inside his own defensive zone.
So after the heavy loss on the Friday, Steelers had bounced back to secure a place in the Super Final where they will face Yunost again, Kazakhstan side Nomad Astana and Italian side Ritten Renon at a venue yet to be decided. Steelers owner Tony Smith has said that the Club would love to host it which would be a great occasion if we do. But that's in the hands of the IIHF and we will probably know soon if we have been successful or not. In the end, it did prove to be Danish delight for Paul Thompson's men but not without a bump in the road. Attention now goes back to the bread and butter of the league. This season is certainly proving to be an interesting one already as we enter the end of November.
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