Finish in the top three NIHL National at the end of the regular season. Tick.
Now all the Sheffield Steeldogs need to do to achieve all of their pre-season goals is make it to the Final Four playoff weekend in Coventry. Maybe even go and win it.
Entering the weekend, no doubt still in the euphoria of beating the league champions Telford Tigers in two legs in the National Cup final, the Steeldogs kept their hopes alive of fulfilling their second goal of the season when they beat to Swindon Wildcats 4-3. overtime on Friday night.
It meant they arrived at Elland Road to take on their Yorkshire rivals Leeds last night knowing that a win in regulation would secure their coveted top three finish.
They did so in convincing style, shutting out the Knights for the first time all season, to edge their hosts by one point.
The Steeldogs were the most dominant team, so much so that the Knights managed just three shots on goal in the second period, outscoring 32-22 on the night.
It was in the center section where the damage was done in front of an impressive 2,037-inning crowd. The opening goal came when good work between Jonathan Kirk and Jack Brammer put Lee Bonner in the left circle to shoot low past Sam Gospel’s left pad. to open the scoring at 25.04.
The lead was doubled just over six minutes later when Lee Haywood fired through traffic past Gospel unseen and while Kieran Brown, Adam Barnes, Cole Shudra and Sam Zajac had decent chances they couldn’t find a way past Dmitri Zimozdra.
The result sees the Steeldogs enter a play-off bracket that also hosts the runners-up Swindon Wildcats, along with the Peterborough Phantoms and Basingstoke Bison, the Hampshire side providing the first opposition for Greg Wood’s side when Ice Sheffield visits on saturday before two face to face. each other again in the south the following night.
“We set certain goals for ourselves at the beginning of the season,” Wood said. “One was to reach a Cup final, another was to finish in the top three; now we want to make sure we get to the Final Four Weekend.”
Leeds, who have already lost veteran center Matty Davies for the past three weekends to an upper-body injury, headed to Basingstoke on Saturday and also lost forwards Ethan Hehir and Joe Coulter, along with defender Ross. Kennedy, all ruled out due to illness.
Add to the mix that young Archie Hazeldine was away with Great Britain Under-18s on international duty, it left head coach Ryan Aldridge to the bone. A number of last-minute replacements were found, with forwards Alex Kent of the Hull Jets and Damarni James of the Bradford Bulldogs moving up two levels to be welcomed into the coach of the Hampshire-bound team.
Along the way they picked up 16-year-old defenseman Jamie Smith, 16, who was making the jump from Swindon Wildcats 2.
Prior to that, Aldridge had just six forwards and five D’s on his team sheet, but they came back with two points, coming from two goals behind to win in overtime, temporarily slipping back into third place.
Zack Milton and Alex Roberts gave the hosts a 2-0 lead, which was cut in half shortly after the restart when Adam Barnes scored at 20:35.
It seemed that way, despite matching the Bison blow for blow, as close as Leeds was going to get until Barnes doubled his tally at perfect timing with just 18 seconds left on the clock.
It was a goal worth waiting for, especially when Cole Shudra scored at 63:30 to earn a deserved second point.
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Source: www.yorkshirepost.co.uk
This notice was published: 2022-04-03 22:54:01
