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Steelers solid at Christmas
Hey everyone I hope you all enjoyed your Christmas hockey. To be honest I think we here in Sheffield will have enjoyed it more than most. A 6-3 win over the Panthers on boxing day was followed by one of the best games I have seen this season as we beat the Panthers 5-3 in the NIC in Nottingham. We finished off last night with a home victory over the Coventry Blaze. Added to 2 wins before Christmas we are now on a five game winning streak. Happy times in Sheffield but it could have being so very different.
On boxing day we found ourselves in a bad situation after just one period of hockey. We were down 3-1 and had taken several penalties. We caused our own downfall as we defended in shambolic fashion against the star studded powerplay of the Panthers and I'm sure it shocked no one that Jade Galbraith had a point on every goal for the Panthers. The second period started in just the same fashion but after riding it out for several minutes the Steelers rallied with goals from Squires and Talbot. The Steelers 4th goal which would actually be the game winner was awarded to Robert Dowd however from where I was it looked pretty much like an Ashley Tait goal. Either way the fans were in dream land as Jeff Legue made it 5-3. A final goal late on in the 3rd from Neil Clark sent the home crowd home very very happy. So why did the Panthers lose a game they were in good command of? Well they had a very rusty Kevin St Pierre in goal who frankly let them down on 2 maybe 3 of the goals. Along with that the Panthers do not defend well. The entire league has become more offensive this year but Nottingham at times seem completely geared up towards scoring goals and not defending. To be fair to the Steelers they made all this happen with the great effort they put in the second half of the game and Nottingham had no answer.
So the game on the 27th. There is something special about the NIC arena and when the biggest fixture in British hockey rolls into town it gets even better. This game did not disappoint in any way. It was tough, gritty, nasty and an out and out battle and that was just the queue for the Pork sandwiches! Honestly though all that and more applies to the game itself. Now I have heard the complaints coming from Nottingham about Tom Darnell. Its a load of Bull if you ask me. The call he made which saw us score a winner on the powerplay was a hooking call on young Rob Lachowicz. It was a penalty. It was a young player trying to get away with a hook in the neutral zone to slow a Steelers attack and he got caught end of discussion. Now don't get me wrong Tom Darnell is not a good official. I don't know if we have a good ref in the league but Darnell is certainly not among the better ones. Actually it was funny I read an article in the Steelers programme the other day. It was a Q and A piece with Ex Steeler Glenn Mulvenna. One question was what do you think of the officials over the years? Glenn's response made me laugh. It was something like. " I never thought much about them. It would frustrate you when they made nothing calls but it's not their fault nobody has ever taught them how to ref hockey. They ref the game like it's football." Interesting perspective don't you think? A for the game it was tremendous it really was. St Pierre was much better, Mustukovs made a couple of awesome saves. Both teams played great hockey but it just felt like we had a little bit more and that was the end result. Even a Panthers fan I spoke to after 2 periods said the Steelers should have being clear in front. I think in all honesty we are just that little bit better than Nottingham.
A word on Jeff Heerema. Now Jeff Heerema may have 9 points from 5 games but from the 2 games i saw he just didn't strike me as a guy who is going to automatically make your team a lot better. I know his pedigree and all and I know he has only played 5 games but he just looks like a good player at this level and not quite the superstar i expected. Also we have all seen that Dave Graham has being axed in favour of Rick Strachan. Make of that what you will! I think it will help them out but I'm not sure it will help make them champions. For that to happen i think they need a couple of new d men.
The 3rd and final game against Coventry was less than easy. To be honest that was as much down to the Steelers as it was the Blaze. We made very hard work out of what should have been a easy 2 points but with individual mistakes cost us goals on more than one occasion.
Well thats all from me so all that is left is for me to wish you a very happy new year.
0-3 |
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| 12th March 2006 19:00 | ||
5-3 |
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| 12th March 2006 19:00 | ||
4-5 |
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| 12th March 2006 19:00 | ||
1-4 |
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| 12th March 2006 19:00 | ||
4-4 |
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| 11th March 2006 19:00 | ||
2-4 |
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| 11th March 2006 19:00 | ||
| Club | GP | W | L | OL | GF | GA | Pts |
|---|
5-8 |
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| 19th March 2006 19:00 | ||
5-1 |
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| 19th March 2006 19:00 | ||
4-1 |
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| 19th March 2006 19:00 | ||
5-2 |
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| 19th March 2006 19:00 | ||
3-7 |
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| 19th March 2006 19:00 | ||
1-1 |
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| 19th March 2006 19:00 | ||
| Club | GP | W | L | OL | GF | GA | Pts |
|---|
- Adam Walker
- Alex Birch
- Andy Pierce
- Chris Gent
- Christopher Beal
- Craig Simpson
- Dave Simms
- Elliott Stanley
- Gareth Chalmers
- James Broughton
- James Gordon
- Katy Madgwick
- Luke Catterson
- Mark Briggs
- Mark Duell
- Mat Young
- Patrick Smyth
- Promotion
- Russ Morrell
- Seanna Murdock
- Stephen Dowson
- Stewart Roberts
- Tom Forster
- Vicki Smart
- William Lyon
