Finnerty fumes as Steelers’ title rivals pull clear

As a result of Sunday night’s 4-2 home loss to leaders Nottingham Panthers, the Steelers still trail their East Midlands rivals by seven points - the same margin going into the weekend. They also trail second-placed Belfast Giants by five points after Doug Christiansen’s team registered a four-point weekend, thanks in part to a 5-4 win at Nottingham on Saturday.

With three games against Nottingham and two against Belfast still to come, the Steelers are still in the title hunt, but they will now probably need a couple of results elsewhere to go their way if they are to overhaul both their rivals.

Finnerty was left angry after the Nottingham defeat for what he felt was the failure by officials to call a penalty on Nottingham shortly before what proved to be the game-winning goal from David Clarke.

The Steelers coach felt there was a blatant high sticks call missed on his defenceman Mark Thomas, which left the route to goal clear for Clarke in the 43rd minute.

“I think just three people failed to see the incident when Mark Thomas was sticked in the face that led to the Panthers’ game-winner,“ said Finnerty.

“The problem was that those three were the referee and linesmen. David Clarke even apologised to Tomo in the handshake at the end.

“It’s a penalty as clear as day and I feel for my players right now. They deserve better. They battled throughout and gave me everything they had.”

The night couldn’t have started any worse for the home side when they found themselves trailing to a Jordan Fox strike after less than a minute.

Tylor Michel levelled on the powerplay at 7.50, although the visitors were ahead again within less than a minute when Bruce Graham found a way past John DeCaro.

Shawn Limpright scored his 14th of the season to make it 2-2 at 28.31, but it was the third period when Steelers’ hopes of repeating their December 27 heroics against the Panthers were extinguished with Clarke’s controversial strike being followed by a fourth goal from David Ling in the 57th minute.

The previous night had ended on a much more positive note for Finnerty’s team thanks to the combination of a 4-2 home win over Coventry and Belfast’s triumph at the NIC.

Simon Ferguson and Coventry’s Brad Leeb traded goals around the 10-minute mark before Michel restored the home side’s lead at 22.45.

Two goals in just over a minute early in the third - the first from Ferguson and another from Jeff Legue - left the Blaze with too much to do, although they did reduce the deficit through Dustin Cameron at 56.36.

It left the Steelers five points adrift of Nottingham going into Sunday night’s showdown. But the disappointment that came from not closing that gap to three points has left them with a bigger mountain to climb with 17 games remaining.