Sheffield Steeldogs lace up for NIHL National behind-closed-doors pilot streaming series to bring back ice hockey

As part of a pilot scheme announced on Wednesday night, the Steeldogs will play games against second-tier rivals Milton Keynes Lightning and Swindon Wildcats with fans able to watch via a live stream.

If successful, it is hoped the model - put together because spectators are not yet allowed back into rinks because of the government’s Covid restrictions on attending sporting events - can lay the foundation for more NIHL National clubs to come on board for a possible cup competition in December, with a view to then starting a shortened regular league season in January.

Tickets to watch each game online will be £12, with an option for fans to pay extra if more than one person is watching the stream.

Swindon and Milton Keynes will play the first game on Saturday, November 14, with the Steeldogs coming online the following night to play their Wiltshire rivals at Ice Sheffield.

Ben Morgan’s team will then head to Swindon a week later before the following weekend brings down the curtain on the series with a double-header between the Steeldogs and the Lightning.

“The National League owners have met a number of times throughout the lockdown period and post lockdown,” explained Cree.

“And we felt the best way forward was to put some kind of pilot scheme in place, to check the capabilities of the streaming and also the demand for it. “That way teams can look to build it into potential models moving forward for a Cup competition and hopefully, a league season.”

"There’s been a lot of budgets drawn up over the weeks and months - Budgets A, B and C - with crowds, without crowds, but, sadly, this is the worst-case scenario and not the one that we really want, which is no crowds.

"But the plan is that we really hope everyone really buys into the streaming series and shows that there is a demand for ice hockey even though they can’t physically be with us in the rinks."

All games will go ahead under the EIHA’s return to play and Elite Sport structure which allows them to take place in all current Covid risk level classifications. With no competitive hockey being played at all in the UK yet, and with there little chance of the full-time professional Elite League teams getting on the ice, it is hoped there will be plenty of interest in next month's series of games and, potentially going forward into some kind of shortened regular NIHL National season.

The Steeldogs, starved of ice along with the rest of the NIHL National teams since Covid-19 pandemic brought a premature end to last season in early March, are scheduled to start practising again at ice Sheffield this Friday.

Player-coach Morgan, who recently announced the signing of former Sheffield Steelers' defenceman Ben O'Connor to the Steeldogs' ranks, said his players were chomping at the bit to get back out on the ice practising together in readiness for the upcoming series.

"It's been an incredibly frustrating few months with not having no hockey, but this is really positive news which has come about following talks over the last month or so behind the scenes," said Morgan, who said further signing announcements would made in the coming days and weeks.

"Now it's been announced we're all just excited to get out back on the ice and play some form of competitive games."

Mark Johnson, chair of the NIHL National owners group, added: “We have all been missing hockey and have been overwhelmed by the level of support and interest fans of all teams across our league have shown.

“Add to this that the players have been longing to get back on the ice, we wanted to do everything we could do to see if we could stage some fixtures.

“Although this is a small pilot series, we will use it as a test bed to see if it is viable to scale into a cup competition and then a league campaign. We’re hugely grateful to the EIHA, rink operators, the team owners, players and staff for working so hard to get to this point.”

Fans can purchase tickets for the live streams HERE