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See Sheffield Steelers (lacrosse) for another Sheffield sports team. Sheffield Steelers are one of the most successful clubs in British Ice Hockey , from Sheffield , England . They were formed in 1991 (see 1991 In Sport ) and play their home games at the Hallam FM Arena . They are currently members of the Elite Ice Hockey League . Their main (title) sponsor is Liberata. ICE HOCKEY’S BRITISH RENAISSANCE Ice Hockey began its return to an era of arenas and stadium size crowds with the opening of the Sheffield Arena in 1991 and the creation of the Sheffield Steelers — the ice hockey team that was to occupy the new arena. The Sheffield Arena was built as part of the city’s facilities for the staging of the World Student Games , and is a sizeable stadium originally seating 8,500 and located close to the city centre.1 Dave Biggar was at the helm as the Marketing Director at the club and set about promoting ice hockey to a city raised on the Footballing success of Sheffield United and Wednesday football clubs. Biggar had a specific target, seeking to attract children and families to the city’s new sporting Arena. As he stated in an interview in Liam Sluyter's ''A Game of Three Halves'' (Mainstream Publishing, 1998) "we were sending guys around schools. We wrote to all the schools in Sheffield and said "Bring the kids, see the Arena, sit down, experience the whole thing" ". They also began taking players to local football matches and parading them around the ground with Mascot s in an attempt to pull in football fans too. Another marketing ploy was to give certain players nicknames to help the crowd associate with the new (and as yet unknown) players. Sheffield Steelers were the first ever fully professional ice hockey team in Great Britain, and O’Brien suggested that there was a lot of resentment from the followers of other hockey teams who saw them as a "cheque book hockey club" able to buy whoever they chose. Likewise, Sluyter questions the authenticity of the majority of Steelers fans in the club’s early days. Though he admitted that it was a generalisation, Sluyter suggested hockey fans of teams like Cardiff , Fife and Nottingham were ice hockey fans first and foremost, while Steelers' supporters were only Steelers fans, and knew very little of ice hockey outside of Sheffield. However, it made little difference as Sheffield began breaking several British ice hockey attendance records, and in March of that year added an extra 1,200 seats to the Arena to meet the growing demand. Sheffield Steelers had begun their first ever season in English Division One of the British Hockey League . One year later Sheffield Steelers won promotion into the British Premier League, before going on to win this in 1995 — the last team to do so before the formation of the new British Ice Hockey Super League (ISL) that year. On Sunday 3 December 2006 , the Steelers played in their 1000th ever game.2 The game was against the Basingstoke Bison at the Hallam FM Arena, for which special orange jerseys had been made for the match.3 The Steelers lost the game 3–24 and the jerseys were all auctioned off at the game. 2000–2001 In the 2000–01 campaign the Steelers completed a memorable Grand Slam, comprising the Benson & Hedges Cup , League , Challenge Cup and Playoff Titles . The only other team to win all four trophies in one season were the Ayr Scottish Eagles who completed this feat in the 1997–98 season. The Challenge Cup Final was held in the new Odyssey Arena in Belfast in front of a full house of 7,300. Ayr were the opponents and Steelers won 4–2. The Steelers are the only team to have won 7 trophies in the Superleague era. The teams playoff success came against the London Knights who they defeated 2–1 in a very tight game at the Nottingham Ice Centre to take the Playoff crown. 2001–2002 After a turbulent start to the 2001–02 season, the players managed to turn things around and go on to retain the playoff title they had won the previous season. They overcame the London Knights (3–2) in the Semi-final after going 0-2 down early on and beat the Manchester Storm (4–3) in the final. With time running out the Steelers were losing 2–3 before Chris Lipsett tied the game to send it to Overtime . This failed to separate the teams so Penalties were required. Steelers netminder, Ryan Bach, saved all five Manchester attempts whilst Brad Lauer was successful for the Steelers. This was again played at the National Ice Centre in Nottingham in front of a full house. This victory made the Steelers the only club to successfully retain the Superleague title. The Challenge Cup was also retained following a 3–2 victory over the Nottingham Panthers. This became fourth time that the Steelers have won this competition. 2006–2007 The 2006–07 season had highs and lows, as well as a long unbeaten run, it also included a long losing streak which had some fans questioning the Coach , Matsos. However Matsos made a very difficult decision to cut fan-favourite and enforcer Brett Clouthier to bring in Ryan Finnerty5 who also became a fan favourite with his fiery and skillful play. Coach David Matsos completed his Rookie year taking the Steelers to a fourth place finish in the league and a place in the Challenge Cup Finals.6 Although it was a unsuccessful season in terms of silverware for the Steelers, the club made strides off-ice and broke an Elite League Attendance record against the Manchester Phoenix with an attendance of 7339. 2007–2008 After a trophyless season the Sheffield Steelers looked on towards the 2007–08 season. They tied Coach David Matsos down to stay for another year, and preparation began for the new season.7 Team Owner Bob Phillips and his wife sold their other Elite League club the Cardiff Devils in order to concentrate on building the Steelers.8 Matsos made a quick start in the Off-season resigning his core of British Players, which were, Captain Jonathan Phillips,9 Defenseman Mark Thomas,10 and Forwards Warren Tait11 and Jason Hewitt.12 Matsos also snapped up two imports from the previous season, Goaltender Jody Lehman13 and the coaches player of the season Ian Manzano.14 Rumours were that the other British Forward Phil Hill would not be returning and these rumours were almost clarified when Matsos signed top British forward Ashley Tait (brother of Warren) who had captained the Coventry Blaze in the previous season and lifted the League and Challenge Cup; as well as runners-up in the British Knockout Cup and the semi-finals of the Elite League Playoffs.15 The Steelers re-signed fan favourite Ryan Finnerty16 and two days later announced the signing of Steve Munn from the Norfolk Admirals ( AHL ) and Munn was the first player to take advantage of the Steelers links with the Sheffield University where he will study for an MBA during his two year stay at the club.17 Jeff Legue was announced as a new Steelers signing,18 shortly followed by Randy Dagenais who will be the second player to study for an MBA while at the Steelers.19 Rod Sarich's return was confirmed20 and Joe Talbot was revealed as a Steelers player,21 leaving Matsos with just one spot left to fill on his roster. Jeremy Cornish was announced as the final Steelers signing on 16 July and would fit into the Steelers Third Line and become the club's new Enforcer .22 On 18 July 2007 it was announced that Liberata would the club's title Sponsor for the 2007–08 season.23 2007–08 ROSTER Netminders Defencemen
Forwards
HONOURS AND AWARDS League Championships
Play Off Championships
Autumn Cup s
''' Challenge Cup s
Player Of The Year Trophy
Coach of the Year Trophy
The Ice Hockey Annual Trophy (Leading British points scorer)
First Team All-Star
Second Team All-Star
SEASON-BY-SEASON RECORD ''Note: GP = Games played, W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, OTL = Overtime losses, Pts = Points, GF = Goals for, GA = Goals against'' :†Finished second with 60 points. However, five points were deducted for breaking the wage cap :‡Three points were awarded for a win in the 2000–01 season :††Five team league NOTES EXTERNAL LINKS |
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