Steelers Away Weekend Review at Hull and Coventry by Craig Jones

Thank you to Craig Jones for his contribution to FSB, All Credit for this piece goes to him so any queries you can contact Craig on Twitter @CraigJones29

Steelers run riot in Hull but disaster strikes in Coventry

The hockey weekend for Steelers fans began on Friday night as many of us sat at home glued to our television sets in one of those very very rare occasions where we all sat cheering on the Nottingham Panthers. Despite our well wishes, our nearest and dearest couldn't bring themselves to beat the Braehead Clan to do us a favour and left us five points behind the Clan after their 4-2 victory over the Panthers.

Onto Saturday and the first game of the weekend was a trip across to Hull to face the Stingrays, a team who had plenty to play for themselves as they looked to qualify for the playoffs. With Braehead having a night off, it was a great chance to reduce their advantage back to three points at the top of the table.

A welcome return in goal for Josh Unice put a smile on the faces of the travelling fans and hopefully with a regular import netminder back in goal the Steelers could push on and challenge the Clan. Things started well in Hull and after ten minutes and two quick goals from Colton Fretter and Ben O'Connor the Steelers had a two goal cushion. Mathieu Roy and Hull's Jordan Mayer traded goals in the space of just 40 seconds to take the Steelers lead to 3-1 at the end of the first period and it was a well-deserved lead for Gerad Adams and his players.

The Stingrays pulled a goal back in the second period through Sam Towner to make the game 3-2 but that didn't last for long as Tyler Mosienko restored the two goal lead for the Steelers and that is how the second period ended.

The third period was all about one thing, Steelers dominance and the Stingrays simply had no answer as the Steelers ran riot. The Steelers outshot the Stingrays 25-6 in the final period and got their rewards on the scoreboard. Two goals in a minute from Jeff Legue and Mike Forney took the game away from Hull to give the Steelers a 6-2 lead with 15 minutes to play. The Steelers didn't stop there, Colton Fretter, Mathieu Roy and Ben O'Connor all added their second goals of the game to take the Steelers to a 9-2 victory, embarrassing Hull in the final period as the Stingrays simply had no answer to what the Steelers were throwing at them.

With the win in Hull, Braehead's lead was cut back to three points going into Sunday's games where the Steelers travelled to Coventry and the Clan faced Fife at home. Fellow title chasers, the Cardiff Devils were also playing on Sunday, at home to the Belfast Giants.

The Steelers started very quickly in Coventry and went ahead after just over a minute with Mike Forney scoring his 36th goal of the season to give them a one goal lead. The Blaze hit back half way through the period when Derek Lee scored on the powerplay and the game was tied. That is how the first period ended, even on the ice and even on the scoreboard.

Halfway through the second period Mike Forney once again stepped up and delivered for the Steelers to give them a 2-1 lead, scoring on the powerplay. The Steelers had a little more control over the game at this stage and all looked to be going well until towards the end of the second period when the Blaze hit back once again. Jakub Sindel was the man this time and he pulled the Blaze back to tie the game for the second time as the second period drew to a close. However, we weren't done just yet, with less than a minute remaining in the second period Tyler Mosienko scored to restore the lead and the Steelers went into the dressing room after two periods leading 3-2 with a big momentum swinging goal right at the end of the second.

The crucial third period began evenly but it was the Coventry Blaze who began to take over and halfway through the final period they got a reward for their hard work through Steven Chalmers and the game was tied 3-3. The Blaze continued to pile on the pressure and looked the more dangerous going into the final few minutes of the game. With just over three minutes left in the game, disaster struck and the Coventry Blaze found the net to take a 4-3 lead through Derek Lee, who scored his second goal of the game. Just when the Steelers needed a quick response the Blaze put the game to bed with a fifth goal through Jereme Tendler leaving the Steelers two goals behind with just over two minutes left. That is how the game ended and the Blaze took the two points on Sunday night.

Elsewhere the Braehead Clan beat the Fife Flyers 5-2 and the Cardiff Devils beat the Belfast Giants 3-2, both results bad for the Steelers.

The loss on Sunday was a huge dent to title hopes and it seems the title is now Braehead's to lose, they are five points clear and even a win on Wednesday night at Ice Sheffield will only pull the Steelers to three points behind. If the Clan take anything from Wednesday's game then I fear it is all over.

The one thing to take from this weekend has to be how the Coventry Blaze have turned their season around over the past few weeks. They are the one team I don't want the Steelers to face in the playoffs right now and I believe the rest of the league will be thinking the same, the Blaze are genuine dark horses for the playoffs.

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Match Report: 21.12.2014 - Stingrays v Steelers EIHL

Sunday 21^st December 2014 – Hull Stingrays (9-11-3) v Sheffield Steelers (18-5-1) @ Hull Arena. Face-off: 6pm, Elite League

Hull Stingrays – 3
Omar Pacha – 2^nd PP
Eric Galbraith – 2^nd
Carl Lauzon – 3^rd

Sheffield Steelers – 4
Colton Fretter – 1^st
Mathieu Roy (2) – 1^st PP, 2^nd
Robert Dowd – 2^nd

Part two of the Yorkshire derby got underway and it was very dominate first session by the visitors as they outshot their hosts 3/1 and David Brown was outstanding as he was the night before as he would save shot after shot but he couldn’t save them all when Sheffield opened the scoring at 7:01 when Sheffield won an offensive zone face-off Baldwin fired one off the draw that was saved by Brown and Fretter picked up the rebound and shot past Brown on the backhand for a 1-0 lead. Sheffield would then gift Hull with a powerplay of their own but they was kept to the edges and long distant shots and couldn’t find a way to level the game but soon after Sheffield had their own powerplay which started off in the right fashion as the Visitors had three great opportunities to extend their lead and when Osman took a hooking call Sheffield went 5v3 for 1:20 but it didn’t take Sheffield that long to score again and it was top point scorer Mathieu Roy who fired a forehanded shot past Brown after Dowd’s shot from the blue line was rebounded out of the pads of the Hull netminder at 13:18 for a 2-0 lead for the visitors. Thomas was called for holding with four minutes left in the period and that was after a coming together on the boards in which Bois received a few punches for his trouble but Hull got to work but was kept to the edges and was struggling to find any shooting lanes but would go into the first break 2-0 down.

End of the 1st Period: Hull Stingrays 0–2 Sheffield Steelers

Shots on Goal: Stingrays 8–25 Steelers

Into the second period Hull made more of a game with it and didn’t lie down and let Sheffield just come at them like they did in the first period. Tanaka and Knox had early chances before Towner shot was saved by the blocker of Doyle, and the biggest chance so far for the home side fell to Knox after Davies from the left wing threw one on goal and Knox couldn’t redirect it past Doyle after the visitors killed another powerplay for the home side they extended their lead as Dowd jumped out of the box he played Mosienko to his left who’s slap shot was saved by Brown and Dowd scored the rebound from the face-off circle for a 3-0 lead at 26:31. Hull missed a golden chance when they broke 2v1 and missed a great chance into the open goal but with the home side on the man advantage Pacha was played the puck to the right of Doyle’s goal and fired his wrist shot straight through the legs of Doyle to put Hull on the board at 30:12, Hull dug in deep and brought the game within one goal at 36:33 after some lazing defending by the Steelers Eric Galbraith brought the puck down and slotted it nicely past Doyle down low and cut the Steelers lead to 3-2. It didn’t take Sheffield long to prevent the comeback when Mathieu Roy scored his second of the night at 38:27 after Roy was in front of goal and he swung at the puck which hit the pads of Brown and trickled into the back of the net for a 4-2 lead and it’s how the period ended leaving Hull with a lot of work to do in the third period.
End of the 2nd Period: Hull Stingrays 2–4 Sheffield Steelers

Shots on Goal: Stingrays 13–14 Steelers

Sheffield dominated the early stages of the third period but couldn’t get another goal on the board after they wasted several decent scoring chances. Sheffield got another power play and almost scored another but Brown saved from Fretter but Eddy soon evened it up. Both teams were really having a go at each other with hit after hit being thrown in and both netminder having a great period but with the clock ticking down Hull pulled another goal back at 46:61 when Tanaka broke down the left hand side before he squared the puck to Carl Lauzon who redirected past Doyle from in front of goal and Sheffield led 4-3 going into the final three minutes of the game but Hull shot themselves in the foot and stopped any chance of getting level when Tanaka took an interference penalty and Sheffield kept their hosts camped in their zone  and didn’t give them the chance to pull Brown for an extra attacker and Sheffield saw out the game with a 4-3 victory which saw the Steelers stay top of the league at Christmas.
Shots on Goal: Stingrays 9–11 Steelers

FINAL SCORE: Hull Stingrays 3–4 Sheffield Steelers

Boxscore (1st-2nd-3rd-OT-[PIM]-{PP}-S)

Hull           - 2-2-0-0-[8]-{1/7}-30

Sheffield  - 0-2-1-0-[14]-{1/4}-50

Hull Man of the Match: #30 David Brown
Sheffield Man of the Match: #81 Ben O’Connor

Hull Points Round Up: - 8 Points
Omar Pacha (1+0), Cory Tanaka (1+1), Carl Lauzon (1+0), Brendan Jamison (0+1), Matthew Davies (0+1), Zach Hervato (0+1), Eric Galbraith (1+0)

Sheffield Points Round Up: - 12 Points

Gord Baldwin (0+2), Cullen Eddy (0+1), Michael Forney (0+2), Mathieu Roy (2+0), Danny Bois (0+1), Colton Fretter (1+0), Darrell Hay (0+1), Robert Dowd (1+1)

Referee: #26 Dean Smith

Referee:

Linesman: #30 Luke Palmer

Linesman: #36 Phil Sewell

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Match Report: 12.10.2014 - Stingrays v Steelers CC

Sunday 12^th October 2014 – Hull Stingrays (1-2-0) v Sheffield Steelers (5-1-1) @ Hull Arena. Face-off: 6pm, Challenge Cup

Hull Stingrays – 2
Jordan Mayer
Eric Galbraith

Sheffield Steelers – 3
Jason Hewitt
Michael Forney
Cullen Eddy PP

Sheffield travelled to Hull for their final challenge cup group game 3 days after beating them in Sheffield young Luke Ferrara was playing with Peterborough so Sheffield gave a debut to 16 year old Jack Dransfield but the Yorkshire derby got underway with Liam Sewell in the middle and he was to have an interesting game to say the least. It was Sheffield who started the better as Mark Thomas picked out Forney with a great cross ice pass only for Brown to get the slightest of touches to put his effort wide but it would be Sheffield who scored the first goal of the game when on 3:32 assisted by Latulippe and Eddy who both forced some good saves out of David Brown from in front of goal for Jason Hewitt to tap shoot from the right of goal to score his fourth goal of the season. Then from the restart Colton Fretter was denied by Brown after skating in front of goal and then not ten seconds later Fretter laid down a big hit on Larke against the boards which almost started a line brawl and to the disgust of the home support they wasn’t happy with the hit. Colton Fretter however would receive a two minute penalty for slashing and then five plus game penalty for boarding which would give Hull a seven minute powerplay at 5:25 Matthew Davies and Mathieu Roy also received roughing penalty’s for the coming together of the teams but Sheffield would have to play the rest of the game a man down and it will be interesting to see if the Steelers forward receives a ban in the week. Hull just wasn’t able to make the breakthrough as Doyle was in fine form as was the Sheffield penalty kill and they would kill all seven minutes to the delight of the travelling support. Both netminders would have to be on form performing some cracking saves as Hull also missed two golden opportunities from the door step which only needed the slightest touch to level the score but luck was on the visitor’s side and Sheffield would take the lead into the break.

End of the 1st Period: Hull Stingrays 0–1 Sheffield Steelers

Shots on Goal: Stingrays 8-8 Steelers

So we had a very interesting first period and we had more of the same to come as it was becoming a very gritty performance by both teams. Hull would get an early chance on the man advantage but again were un-able to get on the boards as Doyle showed great reactions to dash to the right of goal to deny Davies as the puck bounced awkwardly of the glass but Hull would level the scoring on 23:!6 as Jordan Mayer assisted by Larke and Tanaka showed some clever stick handling to beat the Steelers defence and Frank Doyle at his near post and that was the Hull forwards seventh goal of the season so far after also scoring against the Steelers in midweek as well. Both teams were getting stuck in and showing the fans what they like to see passion both sides were laying down hits taking penalties and if it wasn’t for Frank Doyle and David Brown probably and should have been a few more goals in this period. It wasn’t Sheffield’s best performance in the middle session as since Fretter had been ejected from the game had struggled in the final 3^rd as Hull had seemed to get under their skins but with Hull killing a penalty with just over five minutes left Matthew Davies jumped out of the box and found himself on the breakaway to give the Stingrays the lead but Doyle had his number and denied him with the leg pads when at the other end Mathieu Roy was denied by the posts and not for the first time this week, but the Yorkshire derby would be level at 1-1 at the end of the 2^nd period and it really was anyone’s game at the moment.
End of the 2nd Period: Hull Stingrays 1–1 Sheffield Steelers

Shots on Goal: Stingrays 7–7 Steelers

Third period got underway with the scores level at 1-1 with a gritty performance by both teams and we was in for more of the same after Lauzon had missed a great chance to put the home side ahead Eddy saw the puck bounce over his stick from a rebound as Baldwin shot but in the very next attack the Steelers did take the lead again on 46:52 as Mike Forney to the left of Brown skates into the face-off circle before firing his 9th of the season through the five hole of David Brown to give Sheffield a 2-1 lead and almost scored a second of the game as Baldwin threw the puck in front of goal but it was just too far for the Steelers forward to reach and Forney brought out the skills to the delight of the travelling fans before Mosienko took a hooking penalty but it would soon be levelled up as Turcotte was sent to sit down for holding and if it wasn’t for some fantastic defensive play by Thomas and Sarich the Stingrays probably would have levelled the game through Tanaka but as Mosienko jumped onto the Ice to the put the Steelers on the powerplay Cullen Eddy found himself in possession of the puck on the right before firing one hell of a rock low and hard past the right leg of Brown to put the Steelers 3-1 up on 51:56 cue the Eddy chants. But that wasn’t the end of the scoring as Hull pulled a second back on 54:35 as Eric Galbraith scored his second goal against the Steelers in a week after Carl Lauzon saw is shot padded away Galbraith finished the job tapping in from the right of Doyle’s goal. The game should have been level not long after as Cory Tanaka missed a golden opportunity in front of goal with the clock ticking down it kicked off again with another line brawl in a fashion as a Stingray went down Sewell had his hand up but both lines came together and Turcotte was laying into Roy but Eddy jumped in and dropped the gloves laying several punches on the Stingrays big man before putting him on the Ice, Both were thrown out of the game with 1:51 left as Roy was sent to the box for roughing to put Stingrays on the man advantage for the remainder of the game but as Eddy left the Ice he had his hands up in the air in front of the home support celebrating cue the Eddy chants once again but Sheffield would kill the penalty as Hull pulled Brown as well and they would take the four point weekend as well as top of the group and a game against the Dundee Stars in the quarter-finals of the cup in the new year.
Shots on Goal: Stingrays 10–12 Steelers

FINAL SCORE: Hull Stingrays 2–3 Sheffield Steelers

Boxscore (1st-2nd-3rd-OT-[PIM]-{PP}-S)

Hull          - 0-1-1-0-[37]-{0/4}-25

Sheffield - 1-0-2-0-[82]-{1/4}-27

Hull Man of the Match: #26 Matthew Davies
Sheffield Man of the Match: #15 Mathieu Roy

Hull Points Round Up:- 6 Points
Cory Tanaka (0+1), Carl Lauzon (0+1), Brendan Jamison (0+1), Matt Larke (0+1), Eric Galbraith (1+0), Jordan Mayer (1+0)

Sheffield Points Round Up:- 9 Points

Cullen Eddy (1+1), Michael Forney (1+0), Mathieu Roy (0+1), Jason Hewitt (1+0), Jay Latulippe (0+1), Rodney Sarich (0+1), Mark Thomas (0+1), Darrell Hay (0+1)

Referee: #34 Liam Sewell

Referee:

Linesman: #36 Phil Sewell

Linesman: #30 Luke Palmer

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Let's Go Steelers!

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Stingrays Make Playoffs After Win v Steelers: (EIHL) Game Recap

Sunday 23rd March 2013 - Hull Stingrays (23-24-4) v Sheffield Steelers (31-16-4) @ Hull Arena. Face off: 6pm

Steelers face Hull on the final regular game of the season and Hull have to win to have a chance of qualifying for the playoffs! and after Sheffield's last visit to Hull they wont be looking to give up points easy.

Due to the poor visibility at Hull it's just a game recap today well to be honest because I was in fancy dress I was too busy singing and dancing :)

A WHOLE NEW WORLD - MY JOURNEY INTO ICE HOCKEY

My friend Martyn Royce has been to two ice hockey games in his entire life, both in the last two weeks. His first in this country was last Saturday's 5-1 defeat to Hull, but his first game overall was at German side ERC Ingolstadt. Quite a contrast. Martyn is a very eloquent man and jumped at the chance of writing a comparison between the two. Bear in mind that before the game in Germany, he'd never been to an ice hockey game.

Ben Bowns Shines v Steelers: (EIHL) Match Report

Saturday 8th March 2013 - Hull Stingrays (21-22-4) v Sheffield Steelers (27-15-4) @ Hull Arena. Face off: 6.30pm

Sheffield travelled to Hull on a Saturday evening, this was meant to be a full match report but the view was that bad I didn't bother with updates so just a game recap I'm afraid.

It was a great start for the home side when Carl Lauzon scored at 1:18 into the game assisted by Pavel Gomeniuk for a 1-0 Hull lead. Sheffield got two power play attempts and wasn't able to make any of them count coming up against an outstanding Ben Bowns. Hull didn't score on their first man advantage but 19:23 and the final minute of the 1st period was able to score a second goal courtesy of Jason Silverthorn assisted by Guillaume Doucet  and Carl Lauzon as Hull went into the break 2-0 up.
End of the 1st Period: Hull Stingrays 2-0 Sheffield Steelers
Shots on Goal: Stingrays 7-15 Steelers

Second period started and it was a 3 goal period for the Hull Stingrays when on 23:25 Sylvain Cloutier was next to score to give Hull a 3 goal lead assisted by Carl Lauzon and Guillaume Doucet and then on 26:39 on a 5 on 3 power play the always impressive Jereme Tendler scored their fourth unanswered goal assisted by Omar Pacha and Matthew Davies. On 34:52 the Steelers night got even worse as Sylvain Cloutier scored his second of the game for a 5-0 lead assisted by Martin Ondrej and Guillaume Doucet. Into the second intermission and 5-0 down for the Steelers both sets of fans couldn't believe what they was seeing.
End of the 2nd Period: Hull Stingrays 5-0 Sheffield Steelers
Shots on Goal: Stingrays 14-14 Steelers

Third Period was more about damage limitations but Sheffield massively out shot the Hull Stingrays, Sheffield had one power play chance in the 3rd period but couldn't figure out Ben Bowns who had been outstanding all night and it was on 59:15 when Ben Bowns was robbed of his shut out when Robert Dowd scored assisted by Stefan Meyer and Nate DiCasmirro.
Shots on Goal: Stingrays 8-23 Steelers

FINAL SCORE: Hull Stingrays 5-1 Sheffield Steelers

Boxscore (1st-2nd-3rd-OT-[PIM]-{PP}-S)
Hull         - 2-3-0-0-[8]-{1/5}-29
Sheffield - 0-0-1-0-[12]-{0/3}-52

Hull Man of the Match: #33 Ben Bowns
Sheffield Man of the Match: #49 Drew Fata

Referee: #26 Dean Smith
Referee:
Linesman: #22 Paul Staniforth
Linesman: #38 Danny Beresford

A 5-1 defeat for the Steelers in Hull but wasn't so bad when all results elsewhere also went their way and next up for Sheffield was a visit by the champions the Belfast Giants on the Sunday evening. Sheffield out shoot Hull 52-29 but still lose 5-1! how often can you say that? Ben Bowns was just simply magnificent.

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Keep Supporting The Boys!!

Let's Go Steelers!

Tom
@TomWalkeden
(Follow me on Twitter for Live Updates on Games)