SHEFFIELD STEELERS suffered an enormous blow to their aspirations of a seventh Elite League title after they went down 4-0 at dwelling towards a clinical Belfast Giants.
The 4-0 win for the guests on the Utilita Arena on Saturday noticed the Giants pull eight factors forward of the Steelers in the standings.
Aaron Fox’s workforce have eight video games remaining, whereas Belfast even have a recreation in hand.
The two meet once more on Sunday night time when nothing however a regulation win will do for the Steelers, who sit third in the standings after seeing Nottingham Panthers climb above them on Friday with a 6-2 win at dwelling to Fire Flyers.
Essentially, the Steelers had been left to rue being unable to transform their possibilities, significantly in a primary interval they largely dominated.
Belfast confirmed why they’ve been a step forward of their rivals once more this season – they’ve gained 4 of the final 5 common season titles – possessing a capability to choose the Steelers off with targets at key instances.
“Obviously, that was not the result we wanted,” mentioned head coach Fox. “Around the 30-minute mark I felt like the wind fell out of our sails and we just looked like we were going through the motions and feeling sorry for ourselves at that point of the game.
“And you get the end result there in the last 30 minutes where there was not a lot of passion or energy or desperation in our game and so it is a pretty tough one to swallow.
“From a defensive side of the game, we only gave up 14 shots tonight but it just seemed like every mistake we made ended up in the back of our net.
“We’ve played a lot of spirited hockey in this past five weeks to put ourselves in a position of hopefully claw back something this weekend and then after things didn’t go our way early on it looked like we kind of gave up a little bit which is a little bit disheartening as a coach.
“I would like to see a little fight back from our group on Sunday. This team has had our number the last four times we’ve played them and they’ve taken it to us pretty good now.
“It would be good to see some pushback and some guys playing more pissed off – but it was a bit of a gut-punch tonight.”
Fox was happy along with his workforce’s first interval exhibiting, one in which they made all of the early operating, the primary clear likelihood coming in the fourth minute when Stephen Harper was denied with solely Jake Kupsky to beat, who needed to be on his toes quickly after to parry a blast from Joona Huttula from the highest of the left circle.
Evan Jasper discovered the side-netting from an analogous place earlier than Matt Greenfield was referred to as into service for the primary time to disclaim Reid Irwin’s effort from the highest of the suitable circle in the ninth minute.
Mitchell Balmas was discovered on their lonesome on the midway level by Huttula’s pinpoint stretch move however his backhand effort was denied by Kupsky’s outstretched left pad.
Steelers’ failure to transform got here again to hang-out them shortly after when Jordan Kawaguchi fired by Greenfield from shut vary at 11.03 after a exact build-up from Mike Lee and Nicholas Guay.
The Steelers obtained off to the worst attainable begin in the second interval when the Giants labored themselves a 3-on-2 breakaway, one which noticed former Steelers ahead Brandon Whistle deliver a pinpoint feed for Carsen Twarynski to tip dwelling from shut vary at 22.07.
Just after the midway level, Stephen Harper was robbed of the puck in the Steelers’ zone by Ciaran Long, who rapidly arrange Ben Freeman to fireplace previous Greenfield.
The Steelers pressed laborious for a means again into the sport, nevertheless it was robust towards a workforce on their technique to a fourth win out of 5 conferences towards them this season.
To guarantee there was no means again for the house aspect, Kawaguchi gained the puck on the boards close to the sting of the Steelers’ zone and fed Guay, who discovered it too straightforward to chop inside and skate throughout the entrance of purpose earlier than selecting his spot to make it 4-0 at 48.11.
“I felt like we came out pretty hard at the start and were doing a lot of things right,” mentioned ahead Pattrick Watling. “But the bounces didn’t go our way, and I don’t think the score really reflected the game.
“Obviously it makes things harder for us but if we can come out 50-50 on the weekend it’s kind of a wash and then there are still eight games after that and you never know what can happen in this league.”
