EIHL Preview: Blaze at Steelers – 5 October 2013
The Sheffield Steelers host their first Saturday home game of the season at the Arena this weekend, as the Coventry Blaze head to South Yorkshire. Doug Christiansen’s side have played more Challenge Cup games than any other team in the Elite League this year, and will continue that trend on Saturday when the Blaze provide the Steelers their seventh cup tie of the season.
Despite playing two more games than most of their opponents in Group B already, the Steelers still sit in second position as their influx of new talent has experienced the majority of its growing pains in the competition due to the amount of early fixtures.
Slowly but surely though things look to be coming together for the Sheffield men, as team chemistry and recent performances are steadily improving despite the Steelers having lost three of their last four games. Robert Dowd in particular has hit hot form, taking over goal scoring duties from the injured Maxime Lacroix, who looked extremely promising before getting hurt three weeks ago. Stefan Meyer, Jonathan Phillips and Jason Hewitt too have had no trouble finding the net, with the real issues for the Steelers being the defence, with early goals in particular being highlighted by Doug Christiansen as the biggest problem for his team as they get ready to start the bulk of their Elite League games from next week onwards. Fans will hope the return of defenseman Chad Langlais from injury, as well as the addition of veteran Nate Dicasmirro will be enough of a boost to lift their side past the Blaze this Saturday.
Coventry meanwhile head to Sheffield off the back of five straight victories in all competitions. New signing Ryan Ginand continued his impressive start to the season, bagging a hat trick last weekend against Dundee and leads the league in goals scored (12) and powerplay goals (5) in just seven games. Fellow forward Adam Henrich is also in the EIHL’s top three points scorers and given they play on separate lines they pose a dual scoring threat that Sheffield will have to deal with.
It’s not just goals though as the Blaze have conceded just 15 goals so far, fewer than any other team in the league. Netminder Mike Zacharias has quickly built up a reputation for being able to stop shots from all angles if he is given sight of the puck and space to move. With all of these impressive statistics, it was the Steelers who won the only meeting between the two sides so far this season, winning 4-2 on opening night at the Skydome and the Blaze will be looking to even the score this weekend.
