Sheffield Steeldogs look to confirm NIHL National Cup final spot as Ryan Aldridge sticks with Leeds Knights until end of season

In an entertaining, fast-paced first leg at Ice Sheffield, Greg Wood’s team will probably feel aggrieved not to have gone in at the halfway point of the tie at least one goal ahead, but will be pleased with how they more than matched their rivals in front of a bumper crowd.

Both goaltenders were kept busy throughout and managed to go in at the end of the first perioed break unbeaten. The deadlock was eventually broken when, towards the end of a 5-on-3 power play, Matt Bissonnette worked room for himself in the right circle off a feed from Jonathan Kirk to fire past Renny Marr.

That was how it stayed until the third, the first 10 minutes of which the Steeldogs had to do without Nathan Ripley after he was handed a 10-minute misconduct penalty at the end of the middle period. And it was a former Steeldogs’ forward who got Swindon back on even terms, Edgars Bebris - who played in Sheffield from 2010-14 - cut in from the right wing and rifled one into Dmitri Zimozdra’s top left-hand corner at 45.24.

Chances came and went at both ends, Steeldogs’ Alex Graham almost getting his team a second, but no further goals arrived.

After tonight’s second leg, the Steeldogs complete their three-game weekend when they hit the road on Sunday to take on Peterborough Phantoms.

Slava Koulikov’s will be looking to bounce back from last Sunday’s 3-1 home defeat to Leeds Knights when they travel to bottom club Bees tonight.

Steve Nell, meanwhile, has confirmed Ryan Aldridge will remain as head coach at Leeds Knights for the remainder of the season.

Whether the 43-year-old is behind the bench when the 2022-23 NIHL National campaign begins, though, is another matter, although that should become clearer by the end of the month with the two set to have further talks.

When Aldridge was appointed to succeed Dave Whistle last month, Nell was keen to stress it was on an interim basis.

But news that the former Swindon Wildcats and Basingstoke Bison coach is in place until the end of the play-offs will be warmly greeted by both players and fans, Aldridge posting an impressive 7-3 record in the 10 games he has presided over, keeping the Knights in contention for a top-four regular season finish.

Aldridge spends the majority of his week back home in Swindon, where he also has a full-time job. It means there will be a lot to consider on both sides before any decision is made on whether he extends his time in Leeds beyond May.

Either way, there is no doubt Nell - for who Aldridge has previously worked at Swindon and Okanagan Hockey Academy - is pleased with the impact he has had.

“Ryan will be here until the end of the season, we talked earlier this week about it and came to an agreement,” said Nell.

“We’ll be sitting down before the end of the month to discuss what happens after that and we’ll go from there. There’s a good young team here with bags of potential but they need the direction, they need the coaching and I’m sure if it’s not Ryan then it will be somebody similar to him who we bring in.”

“It’s gone well since he arrived. We’ve got a young team, yes, but Ryan has shown what is possible if they buy in to what he’s trying to do.”

Aldridge returns to former club Basingstoke with the Knights tomorrow night, keen to avenge a 5-1 defeat on home ice two weeks ago.