Tuesday 8th November 2011


The Sheffield Steelers recorded two more wins over the weekend that kept their hopes of both league and challenge cup success.

Neil Clark scored his 2nd goal of the game v Hull Stingrays with just 10 seconds remaining to keep the Sheffield Steelers Challenge Cup hopes alive. Steelers went 1-0 down to a Jack Watkins opener in the first period but bounced back to win the middle period 2-0 with goals from Clark and Colt King.

It looked like the Challenge Cup points were heading back to Sheffield, but under pressure Player Coach Sylvain Cloutier equalised with less than 5 minutes remaining leaving the Steelers in a precarious position as far as qualifications for the semi finals.

In a final push though the Steelers broke through with Clark scoring the late winner at 59.50 with assists going to Ashley Tait and Jeff Legue.

"It wasn't our best performance but we showed a lot of character coming back to win in the way that we did" said Player Coach Ryan Finnerty.

On Sunday, the Steelers recorded their 11th win in 12 league games beating the Edinburgh Capitals 6-1 thus closing the gap to first place Belfast Giants to just 4 points whilst having an incredible 4 games in hand.

It was a comfortable victory for Ryan Finnerty's side with 5 different scorers led by Jeff Legue (2), with other strikes coming from Lee Esders, Tom Squires, Rod Sarich and Neil Clark.

"We knew Edinburgh wouldn't really pressure us" said Finnerty "They arrived in Sheffield a few bodies down. It was important that we kept our discipline and focus and did a professional job and I think we did. We managed to give both goalies ice time, play our full bench and come through the weekend without any further injuries or concerns.

"We are excited by our league position and that we are still in the driving seat as far as the cup goes. We have to take advantage on both fronts in the weeks that come and capitalise on where we are right now."

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