Sheffield Steeldogs aiming to double-up in NIHL National play-offs

It was a close-run thing, but the Steeldogs got the better of Leeds Knights in the National Cup Final over two legs - something which will have brought an immense sense of satisfaction having come off second-best to their Yorkshire rivals for so long prior to the 2025-26 season.

The reserves his players had to draw on to get to that point - particularly during a frantic ending to the second leg when Leeds levelled on aggregate with just four seconds remaining - are what Steeldogs’ head coach Slava Koulikov hopes will come to the fore over the next four weekends.

The Steeldogs open up the post-season for the whole league when they host Koulikov’s former club Peterborough Phantoms at Ice Sheffield tonight. The return match takes place at Mallard Road on Sunday.

It is the first of three double-header weekends, with Sheffield’s fourth-place regular season finish seeing them go into a Group A that also contains league champions Swindon Wildcats and Romford Raiders, who secured the eighth and final play-off spot on the penultimate weekend.

Each opponent will bring their own unique difficulties for the Steeldogs to navigate if they are to make it to Coventry for the Final Four Weekend on April 18.

They have made it to the SkyDome Arena twice during the NIHL National era - there was no post-season during the inaugural 2019-20 season due to Covid - winning in 2022 and a losing semi-finalist the following year.

In 2023-24, the Steeldogs failed to make the post-season altogether, while last year’s group phase saw them fail to win a game after being hit by season-ending injuries to key players on the opening weekend.

In a campaign which has already seen them transformed into winners again, the Steeldogs enter this post-season not surprisingly with plenty of confidence and led by a coach who knows what it takes to win in Coventry, having guided Peterborough to the title when beating Leeds Knights 5-4 after a shoot-out two years ago.

He has also experienced the other side, too, his Peterborough team well-beaten when going down 6-1 in last year’s play-off final at the hands of Milton Keynes Lightning.

But it is more recent final experiences that both coach and players will draw on to try and get them through to Coventry and give them a chance to emulate the Cup and play-off double the club enjoyed four years ago.

“It should, it definitely should,” says Koulikov when asked if his team’s ability to win a final would serve them well in the coming weeks.

“Sometimes, though, it also goes the other way. It is about the will to win and if the group is motivated to win it definitely goes as a positive because we had moments in those games where we had to reset or we were not doing well.

“It’s always easy when things are coming off - in sport, life, relationships - but when things get tough that is when that mentality has to come through.

“And I guess we definitely have a few things that we learned from that Cup final in both the first and the second leg - and I hope that experience is going to be beneficial now.”

The Steeldogs could be considered favourites to come out on top against Peterborough, having taken seven points from a possible 10, while also getting the better of them 9-5 over two legs in the National Cup semi-final.

On getting over the line to win the play-offs, Koulikov added: “I think it is pretty similar to the later stages of the (National) Cup - the semi-final, the final - where everything matters.

“You don’t really have too many lifelines like you do in the (regular) season, you just try to be your best, both as a group and as an individual. Just don’t look back, live in the present and play the game.

“It is all about the small details. Everyone talks about the bigger picture but, at the end of the day, if you don’t win a battle, or you don’t win the race, that is what decides the outcome.

“And my team has done a great job in the Cup semi-final and final and we will have to do it again.

"The Final Four weekend is probably the best weekend of the season. You try to get the best out of your players for the last three-four weeks of the season and of course Coventry is one of the goals for us as a team.

”We’re good enough to beat anyone and that is the mentality we have to take into the group stages. We would love to be in Coventry – but we know it is not going to be easy to get there.”