Red Out the Rink !

20th Dec 2011 | Posted by Simon Rafferty

This Black Friday see’s the Devils in their first true must win game of the season, sure every game is must win but for our Challenge cup hopes to remain alive this game has to be won, the guys need to give it their all to make sure that it’s us and not Sheffield making it to the next round. Grudge matches don’t get much bigger than Devils V’s Steelers for us at the minute with the two teams already having met five times since the start of the season the tally currently stands at Steelers 4 - 1 Devils.

Friday’s game sees the Devils calling for fans to “Red out the Rink”, Coach Gerard Adams had this to say.
“We need hockey fans to turn out in force – and wear red,” says Adams. “Wear your Wales rugby or football top, anything in red. Come dressed in a Santa suit if you want – just get down to the bay and join the party. We want every fan dressed in red.”

I took a look online for some fun information about wearing the color Red and its effects, there’s loads of well drippy hippy stuff about the effects it has on your Chakra’s and what not but all the places I looked tend to agree that “When you wear red you will feel confident and in control”;  “Wearing red will bring excitement into your day”;  “represents power”;  “inherently exciting”; “Increases enthusiasm “ ; “Encourages action and confidence “ all things that can’t help but be good that and as many fans as possible coming in.

Last weekend the Steelers played the understrength Fife Flyers home and away, first up at home in Sheffield on Saturday where surprisingly the score line was nil all at the end of the first period.

The Steelers quickly set this right with two goals inside the first minute of the second period, firstly from Mike Ramsay with just 26 seconds on the clock followed just 17 seconds later by another from Luke Fulghum. It was Ramsay with his second of the game on the power play to give the Steelers a three-goal lead.

The Steelers added a fourth as newcomer Francis Trudel scored in the middle of the third seemingly sealing the win for them. But then the Flyers came roaring back as first Chris Wands then Toms Hartmanis and Mike Hamilton hit back with three for the Flyers in just a few minutes bringing them back into the game and chasing the Equalizer.

Having made a massive fight back the Flyers were really up against it in the final minute. A goal behind – under penalty – and the goaltender pulled it came as no surprise it was the home side that got the next goal from the stick of Colt King to close the game out.

Final score Sheffield Steelers 5 – 3 Fife Flyers with the Steelers making hard work for themselves in a game they should have realistically closed out at 3 nil.

The return leg on Sunday again proved an eye opener as again the first period was scoreless. The second period proved to be a strong one of the Flyers who netted 4 goals starting with a power play strike by Matt Siddall and then player/coach Todd Dutiaume made it 2-0. Remarkably it was 3-0 not long after when Toms Hartmanis found the net only for Steelers own player/coach Ryan Finnerty to get his side on the board soon after.

The Flyers then extended this lead with another goal with just17 seconds of the period remaining Siddall scored his 2nd for a 4-1 Flyers lead.

It then fell to Toms Hartmanis to shoot Flyers 5-1 early in the third. This spurred Ryan Finnerty into action and starting net minder John DeCaro who had taken a puck in the neck early in the game and tried to play on was replaced with by back up Geoff Woolhouse. With Woolhouse in net the Steelers then began a remarkable comeback with Luke Fulghum pulling a goal back, on the power play followed just 18 seconds later be Steve Birnstill to make it 5-3, soon after another power play goal for Steelers from Fulghum made it a 1-goal game and then with time running out it was tied with just three minutes to go when Jeff Legue scored to tie the game.

Carrying the momentum into overtime the Steelers scored first in overtime after just 31 seconds Mark Thomas netted winning the game for the Steelers.

Giving the Steelers two very ugly wins last weekend for a four point weekend, this takes them to  8 straight league wins 5 of which have been in overtime this year’s Steelers are a team that finds a way to win.

Seemingly using as few words as possible in the run up to this weekend’s games Sheffield coach Ryan Finnerty had this to say about the upcoming match “This is a match where we will not be allowed any slip-ups”

Since we last played the Steelers they have had more changes in their line up with the departure of Forward R.G Flath at the end of his trial period and who they then went on to replace with Luke Fulghum from the Coventry Blaze. The Steelers have also added a new D man bringing in Francis Trudel who spent the last few seasons playing in Italy and Norway to cover for the injury to defenseman Rod Sarich which has sadly ended his season early. 

As we know all too well the Steelers roster is packed with scoring depth with the likes of Jeff Legue, Luke Fulghum, Mike Ramsay, Ashley Tait and Ryan Finnerty leading the way amply backed up with scoring from the likes of Neil Clark and Colt King.

The ones to watch against us amongst that lot are Jeff Legue who’s already scored four times on the Devils this season, Mike Ramsay who’s scored twice, and Colt King who also has scored two.

I went looking for power play stats for the Steelers as I seem to recall that their power play is pretty slick, but I will admit I have drawn a blank on finding any hard numbers to back this up. But from memory we need to avoid going into the penalty box against them more than usual.

The Devils top scores so far this season are Scott Matzka (33 points), Max Birbraer (31 points), Stuart MacRae (29 points) and Jeff Pierce on (28 Points). On Just goals Pierce is leading the way on 18 goals.

Looking at the Devils scoring against the Steelers Phil Hill is the man to watch having netted 4 times against them so far this season, other notables are Jeff Pierce on 2, Scott Dobben on 2 and Brad Voth also on 2.

Both teams look to be playing with full rosters with the Steelers carrying a spare Import they will have someone sitting this game out, the Devils will also have a full Bench for the first time in a long time with a replacement for Mark Smith defenseman Jamie Vanderveeken due to arrive in time to play in this game, full story here http://www.cardiffdevils.com/news/vanderveeken-joins-devils/  

We will be running a festively themed “Childish and amazingly Biased” Match Night Live service for this game, at the usual location of www.theinferno.co.uk/mnl if you'd like to help out or chip in with some comments on the night please contact us at matchnightlive@gmail.com.

You can also follow on Twitter for updates on @InfernoMNL

And if you’re looking for somewhere to have a pint and a bite to eat before the game or a few beers afterwards we’d suggest the Pilot in Penarth which is a short trip away and will also be open afterwards for post-match drinks, directions to the pub can be found here - http://www.the-inferno.co.uk/where-to-eatdrink/ 

And Just so I've said it Merry Christmas to everyone from all of us at the Inferno.. Please consider this to be your card from us.

 Skippy