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Elite League Quotes: Fox, Heard, Critchlow reflect on playoff semi-final

By Luke James

Posted on 19th April 2026

Mitchell Balmas, Sheffield Steelers (Image: Elite League)

The Sheffield Steelers produced one of their best performances of the season to punch their ticket to the Elite League playoff final.

Ryan Tait and Mitchell Heard scored braces, with Evan Jasper and Stephen Harper also adding their names to the scoresheet, as Aaron Fox’s side beat the Manchester Storm 6-0 on Saturday [18 April].

British Ice Hockey’s Luke James was rinkside to capture post-game reaction.

Around the Rinks: Saturday, 18 April

Sheffield Steelers 6-0 Manchester Storm

Mitchell Heard, Sheffield Steelers (Image: Elite League)

Mitchell Heard, Sheffield Steelers:

I think we were just ready from puck drop. We’re well-prepared: we have the right guys and great leadership. There’s nothing but positives from today.

My first goal, I was open and [Mitchell Balmas] made a great play to find me. The last one, I tried to make a seam play, it bounced back off the stick, and I managed to get it in.

There’s a lot of people in this building and the atmosphere was unbelievable.

For us, it’s just about having that next-guy-up mentality. It’s about the next play, the next shift, and we’re getting that from everyone in the line-up.

Tomorrow, we’re expecting a hard-nosed game against Cardiff.

Aaron Fox, Sheffield Steelers:

Congratulations, another playoff final, how do you feel?

Good, obviously. This was the goal and now there’s one more step to go tomorrow.

I feel like we’ve been outstanding in the playoffs and we’re looking like a real playoff team right now. We’re playing a complete, 200-foot game, and there’s just a lot of positives.

It was great to see [Matthew Greenfield] record the shutout tonight and break the all-time record. It’s also nice to see some of the guys scoring, that’ll give them confidence for tomorrow.

We’re obviously a bit thin at the moment, but we’ve got a lot of character in the room.

What did you make of the game?

I thought we were outstanding in the first and second. We took a penalty early in the third and it would’ve been easy for them to get some life, but we did a great job on the kill. Greener made a huge backdoor save and I felt that really turned the game on its head.

After the game in Cardiff a few weeks ago, you spoke about how it would be difficult to get the guys going again. Are you proud of how they’ve performed since?

I wasn’t worried about that heading into the playoffs. Sometimes, there’s just a bit of a lull in the season when guys are playing through injuries and you’re trying to chase down the same team all year. When we fell short, it’s hard to find that same type of effort and energy in those games that don’t really mean as much. Finishing second, third, or fourth isn’t that important in this league: you don’t get the extra home game in the playoffs; there’s no benefit in those situations here.

At the end of the day, you want them to be professional and you want them to play a certain way every single night. I was a player, so I get it, and I almost felt like a bit of a fraud because I don’t really call out the guys publicly.

Looking back, maybe I should’ve handled it a bit differently, but I know there’s a good group of guys in that room. It’s going to be a last hurrah for some of the guys, they’re ready to retire, and I just hope we have enough left in the tank for tomorrow.

Cameron Critchlow, Sheffield Steelers:

Commiserations, Cam, what are your thoughts on that one?

Overall, we didn’t really get to our game. I really liked the beginning of the third period, we came out with our physicality and got back to our game on the forecheck. Tyler Hinam had a great fight to get us going. That’s just what hockey’s all about.

I’m not going to sit here and criticise our team. We’ve got an amazing group who have accomplished so much this year: I’m so proud of them and I can’t speak highly enough of them. They created something this year that is different from the years past and we achieved our goal of making it to this weekend.

We believed that we could win this and the guys in there are heartbroken. It’s difficult: experience matters and you could tell that Sheffield have been here before. We have a young team and that matters. This is the first step for us: we’ll start to rebuild and get ready for next year.

Credit to Sheffield: they were tactical and put us under pressure right away. I really hope Sammy Tremblay is alright and okay to play tomorrow. Other than that, I’m just going to talk about how proud I am of this team.

How have you seen the season as a whole?

We had a plan [ahead of the season] and we feel like we’ve implemented pretty well: you can see how we’re playing on the ice. We’re built on character and hard work and now the job is to maintain that. That’s why we’re in the game.

Lastly, just a word on Drew DeRidder’s season: named Goalie of the Year today…

He’s a battler. He works his ass off and he hates getting scored on whether it’s in practice on the third rebound or in a game. I’d like to give a huge shoutout to Matt Gin for helping me get him. Drew is an outstanding professional, a great person, and one hell of a hockey player. He kept us in a lot of games.

I thought Drew and Evan Wenninger was a a great tandem for us. Wenny has great experience in this league. They’re two consummate professionals who wanted each other to have success. Hats off to both of them.