Sheffield Steeldogs aiming to continue feeling home comforts against Leeds Knights
SHEFFIELD STEELDOGS appear to have found a solution to their home ice woes lately – but Ben Morgan believes that new-found strength will face its toughest test yet this weekend.
The player-coach acknowledges that the Steeldogs’ home form has proved something of an achilles heel in recent years.
But they welcome Saturday’s visitors – NIHL National leaders Leeds Knights – boasting a much-improved home record, winning six of the nine games played at Ice Sheffield this season, including the last four.
Two of the last three wins on home ice have been at the expense of fellow high-fliers Milton Keynes Lightning and Hull Seahawks.
Morgan is hoping to add Leeds to that list, but appreciates that will be far from easy, Ryan Aldridge’s team heading to South Yorkshire on the back of a three-game winning streak, a run that started two weeks ago at Elland Road when they hammered Morgan’s team 7-0.
“It was a weird game, we matched them in terms of the shots on goal and we had some really good opportunities,” said Morgan. “But we came up against a really hot netminder and a Leeds team that have got excellent offensive players who are so clinical.
“We were all really disappointed with the performance and the scoreline and we made a collective decision to hold each other to a higher standard and have that accountability.”
That locker room pledge has clearly worked, the Steeldogs winning all four games since their miserable night in West Yorkshire.
“The players have been true to their word,” said Morgan. “We’ve had to grind out some results but they’ve been brilliant in the way that they have responded to that game in Leeds.”
To buy tickets for Saturday night’s Yorkshire derby clash at Ice Sheffield go HERE
Three of those four games have been at home, giving Morgan further reasons to be cheerful with his team now sat third in the standings, one point off the Knights having played a game more.
“It was a bit of an achilles heel for us,” explained Morgan. “Historically we’ve always played better away, I don’t know why, but we are starting to make Ice Sheffield a tougher place for teams to come and play.
“And that is how it should be, every team should be better at home. It’s pleasing to see but the thing now is to prove we can do it at home against the team that is currently the best in the league.”
Leeds have got themselves back at the top of the standings thanks largely to their top line of Matt Haywood, Matt Barron and former Steeldogs’ forward Matt Bissonnette.
But Morgan said it would be foolish to ignore the threats to goal from elsewhere in the two-time champions’ line up.
"If you over-analyse it and put too much emphasis on trying to shut down a particular line or putting all your focus on certain players, then you will come unstuck because they have that quality throughout their roster,” said Morgan.
"So we know their key players, the guys that are hot at the moment and we’ll obviously key in on those guys.
"Bbut we have to worry about our own game, too, and use the last result we had against that team as fuel for our fire to make sure we turn up on and give the best account of ourselves.
“We go into it with the confidence we’ve got from the last four games and the way that we are playing.”
To buy tickets for Saturday night’s Yorkshire derby clash at Ice Sheffield go HERE