Devils Vs Steelers - Double header December 2013

19th Dec 2013 | Posted by Simon Rafferty

This weekend see’s the Devils in action against the Sheffield Steelers away on Saturday and then at home on Sunday.  The season so far between the two teams stands at two wins to the Devils and two to the Steelers.

“Mid-table Steelers are running out of time to get their Elite League act together” According to the Sheffield Star and while not currently top three the Steelers still look to be in the mix to us.  Speaking in the Star Sheffield’s net minder Frank Doyle had this to say - 

“Every player in our dressing room believes in each other and that we are a very good side who will get things right, I am a great believer in not getting too high when you win and not getting too low when you don’t. Maybe that has happened on occasions this year.”

“It sounds funny saying it, because it is so obvious, but we just have to simplify and do the little things right, the simple plays. The list of players we have here tells us that we are a good team, we are going through a bad run but these players will put it right.”

“There is frustration but nothing as a group we aren’t confident of resolving. That starts with Saturday at home to Cardiff. We know the kind of game we can expect, tough and physical, that’s their way. “

“They have good scoring forwards in Blight, Faulkner and Lord and they -like so many teams - have improved beating all the top sides. On Sunday [in the return] they will have the big advantage of their own barn. I can’t remember playing in a rink that small before.”

“Everything happens so quickly, every chance is a good chance there, every shot is a good shot. Guys shoot from everywhere and it’s just a matter of concentrating.”

Last weekend the Steelers had a double set back losing two games on the road starting Saturday in Belfast. It was the Steelers who had opened the scoring in the first period with a strike from Steven Goertzen at 5.53. They hardly had time to celebrate when they were hit with a double whammy and found themselves a goal behind. The home side were level with a goal from Colin Shields at 6.47 and then went in front with a Rob Sandrock strike at 7.07. This was a lead that they held onto for the remainder of the period.

The Giants extended their lead with the only goal of the second period as Shields on the powerplay scored his second of the game with 5 seconds remaining.

It remained like this until Drew Fata pulled it back to 3-2 at 58.20 and then Sandrock with his second of the game found the empty net. The scoring was completed 59.48 as Kevin Saurette was on target

Final Score Belfast Giants 5 - 2 Sheffield Steelers

Coventry moved to within a point of Sheffield with this win and at the same time inflicted a second loss of the weekend for the Steelers. The game was tight throughout and it wasn’t until the 54th minute when the hosts secured the win.

The home side took the honours with the only goal of an even first period when Kenny Kallstrom put them in front at 10.39.

Steelers were back on level terms with a goal from Nate Discasmirro at 26.07. This was quickly cancelled out by the Blaze as Cale Tanaka restored the home sides lead at 27.30.

It remained with only a goal between the teams until 53.36 when Steven Chalmers in only his second game this season after a long layoff with injury gave his side a two goal lead. With Sheffield having pulled the goaltender Russell Cowley was on hand to find the empty net at 59.33.

Final Score Coventry Blaze 4 - 1 Sheffield Steelers

On Paper the ones to watch for the Steelers over the weekend have to be

Jeff Legue on 19 Goals and 15 assists

Stefan Meyer on 13 Goals and 13 assists

Rob Sirianni on 11 Goals and 13 assists

Steven Goertzen on 7 Goals and 16 assists

Saying that it’s been Rob Sirianni and Robert Dowd who’ve done the damage against the Devils so far this season both having netted 3 times.

In nets Frank Doyle boasts an impressive 90% Save percentage and a 2.66 Goals against average.

The Steelers will be keeping a close eye on the injury status of three of three players who missed games last weekend. Dustin Kohn and Robert Dowd both missed Saturdays loss in Belfast and the defeat to Coventry Sunday night. They were joined on the side lines by Steelers top scorer Jeff Legue who was hurt in Saturdays game in Belfast.

Legue had this to say in the Star -  “I will be ready for the weekend. The foot feels a lot better today than yesterday, I can roll it rather than walking on the heel. I’m being well looked after and I can’t see a reason why I won’t be in the line-up for Cardiff on Saturday.”

“It was just bad luck how it happened. Late in the game against Belfast we took a penalty and I was on the kill and blocked a shot. Once the skate came off at the end of the night it was killing me. “

“We got it x-rayed once we arrived in Birmingham and there was no break, which was good to hear. “

“The doctor didn’t want to inject me on Sunday as they thought it would do more harm than good. I was dressed, I wanted to play but it wasn’t to be.”

There hasn’t been an official announcement as yet regarding Dowd and Kohn but there’s been suggestion on Twitter that Dowd will play and Kohn is a maybe.

Speaking on the injury from coach Doug Christiansen had this to say –  “We can't make injuries our excuses but they certainly aren't helping us. We have a great medical team and every one of the guys is working so hard to get back into action"

Our top scorers against the Steelers so far this season have been

Mac Faulkner on 4 Goals

Chris Blight on 2 Goals

Mark Richardson on 2 Goals

With the Sad news this week of the retirement of Dan LaCosta the Devils will have Joe “Deadpuck” Myers who gets his 7th start of the Season on Saturday night in nets.

We chatted about these games and wore horrid Xmas Jumpers ( apart from Jon) which you can check out on our webcast, Inferno TV here  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctLSyyrVecU

We will be running the “ridiculously childish and disgustingly biased” “ Pantomime Script” that is our Match Night Live service for both of these games, expect name calling, slurs and one eyed bias in epic proportions, at the usual location of http://www.the-inferno.co.uk/mnl

On Saturday OJ will be hosting and on Sunday we’ll be updating you live from the Inferno “News desk” at the rink thanks to the great guys at Analysis Technologies. If you’d like to chip in with a comment or make a score prediction you can contact us at matchnightlive@gmail.com.

Also if you can't make it down to the game on Sunday and you don't want to miss any of the action and reading the game isn’t enough you can get the game on Devils live TV here  http://www.cardiffdevils.com/ ( Make sure your Apple product is updated and use Firefox we’d suggest) for a jolly reasonable £8.