Sheffield Steeldogs striving to make it their business to be in the winning game in NIHL National

As far as Sheffield Steeldogs’ head coach Greg Wood is concerned, however, the ‘real business’ started far sooner, in a changing room at Elland Road as his players’ readied themselves for their first pre-season game at Leeds Knights.

That game was lost 4-3 but, after opening their league account by winning by the same scoreline at Swindon Wildcats on Saturday, Wood was able to see further proof that the winning mentality the Steeldogs fashioned during last season’s behind-closed-doors Streaming Series and Spring Cup tournaments is being carried over into the current campaign – with or without the ‘star’ names.

“We want to win every single game and that’s just a mentality that I want us to have – to make winning a habit,” said Wood. “That’s why, for me, the real business started from the first pre-season game.

“Going back to the Streaming Series, we brought in a couple of quality guys in and that raised the level and then we added even more quality for the Spring Cup. This is probably the strongest team I’ve ever had at this level, the one we’ve got now. We’ve recruited well.”

The likes of GB internationals such as Liam Kirk, Jonathan Phillips, Davey Philips and others may no longer be wearing a Steeldogs jersey like they were on the team’s way to winning the Spring Cup with a 100 per cent record, but their impact on their short-term team-mates has been a lasting one as far as Wood is concerned.

“We’ve always had talented players here but I think the mentality side of things completely flipped,” explained Wood. “We came off against Peterborough last week, having got a point on the road and some guys were literally distraught.

“In past seasons, we’d have chopped somebody’s arm off to get a point in Peterborough. It’s been one of our worse rinks to go to. So the mentality of the entire club has flipped. We expect to win every single game we go into now. It is a mindset and it’s a habit that we’re creating and it’s pleasing to see.”

On Saturday, in Wiltshire, after falling behind to a 10th-minute strike from former Steeldogs’ forward Edgars Bebris, once Jason Hewitt levelled just over a minute later, Wood’s team produced another controlled performance, just like they had the previous evening when beating Leeds Knights 6-3 at Ice Sheffield to leapfrog their Yorkshire rivals and finish top of the Autumn Cup group standings.

It was in the middle section where Wood’s team did the damage against a Swindon team that is struggling to establish consistency this season.

Alex Graham struck at 21.51 to give the visitors the lead before the emerging Nathan Ripley continued to show his increasing quality by doubling the lead 33.13 - adding to his excellent strike against Leeds the previous night – before Hewitt grabbed his second just over four minutes later.

It looked like that’s how it would remain until late penalties for Hewitt and defenceman Tim Smith handed Swindon a 5-on-3 power play. With goalie Renny Marr also pulled shortly after Smith went to the box, the hosts threw everything they had at Sheffield, player-coach Aaron Nell making the numerical advantage count to make it 4-2 at 58.29.

Only 31 more seconds had passed before Emil Svec made it a one-goal game with Smith still in the box, but the Steeldogs held out to extend their winning sequence to three games.