New Season
The hockey season is back, and you can follow it all with us right here on BIH.
Stats Centre
We are working on an archive of matches, stats and players from BIH in the past few years.
Something has gotta give
As I type up this blog up, my beloved Steelers are 2-1 ahead in Hull tonight in a game which we have to really win to keep up the pressure on those Cardiff Devils at the summit of the 2010-11 Elite League Championship. Cardiff hold the balance of power as it stands but hockey is like football in a sense that somewhere, and sometime something happens that throws a major spanner in the works. This season is certainly far from over as we enter the final two months of another season.
Last time I put fingers to keyboard, we were awaiting the clash that many had been waiting to happen, the battle between Sheffield and Cardiff. In the words of Ben Simon, “we stunk” and to be honest it summed it up quite easily and succinctly too. For some reason we left the game that had propelled us into the position we held up to that night, firmly at home. Cardiff didn’t just beat us, they absolutely humiliated us on our own ice and I felt absolutely sick that night as I left the House of Steel after seeing a complete horror show unfold in front of my very eyes.
Redemption was needed and by some strange quirk in the fixture list, saw our next game against basement club and crisis ridden Edinburgh. As a hockey fan it saddens me to see the mess that has been allowed to happen at the Caps and also the Vipers, and it makes it even worse when you see those in the ivory towers of Elite League HQ doing very little about it. These two sides don’t deserve the troubles they are going through and it can’t reflect well on the League as a whole. If this last paragraph has hit a raw nerve with some, then well you best get used to it…
Winning 18-1 isn’t as enjoyable as so may make out. Some fans of other sides called us “classless” for running up for such a high score but when you are presented what was at times a shooting practice session then you have to go about this in a professional manner and that’s unfortunately what we did. The fans who witnessed it, myself included, got bored that after the fifth lit the lamp then the celebrations were a bit, how you say, muted. Winning the 50/50 felt surreal too, I just know there were friends of mine in the Arena wanting me to fall on my arse when I stepped onto the ice post-game to collect my winnings.
And so the wins kept a rolling and probably the most significant one was the Belfast 5-4 thriller. I had my mates from Belfast (fellow BIH columnist Seanna Murdock and her husband Pete) over from across the water and the fact we came out on top really made it a bad day for Pete as he had seen (alongside my good self) the Blades lose at home to Norwich at Bramall Lane earlier that day. Never rains but it pours eh Pete? A tremendous game that even topped the first game at the Arena between the sides, and that is saying something.
So in closing February I reckon will be the crucial month though, it will define a lot of things on what is going to happen for us this season. Two games apiece against Cardiff and Coventry and also one against the Dark Side (Nottingham) await us and we have to just keep winning if we are to have the title of Elite League winners 2010-11 festooned upon us. I seriously believe we can do this, and will be screaming and shouting (watch me post national anthem if you want to witness first hand how crazy I go) as much as I can to try and will the guys onto victory. My question is to my fellow Steelers fans, backroom team and players is, do you believe as well? I hope you do.
Yours as always in hockey,
Mark
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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 |
||
| 19th March 2006 19:00 | ||
5-1 |
||
| 19th March 2006 19:00 | ||
4-1 |
||
| 19th March 2006 19:00 | ||
5-2 |
||
| 19th March 2006 19:00 | ||
3-7 |
||
| 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
