GAME THREAD: Steelers v Devils Sunday, 20th February 4:00pm

[smbmetal]

Not sure either side deserved to win that. Perhaps we just shaded it. Cardiff certainly didn’t deserve to win for me.

How Carruth didn’t win Cardiff’s MOM is beyond me.

Safe journey home for all, especially with the potential flooding.

[SteelerBlade]

Still plenty of hockey to be played, and 2 games in hand over a Belfast side we need to play 5 times.

The title is still in our hands, it’s up to us to do the business.

[smbmetal]

Title is very much in our own hands. Belfast have the momentum, we win the majority of the 5 games against them then we will win the title if not we hand it to Belfast on a plate.

[Doom]

Unfortunately I think we're lacking sharp shooters.

Vally is a natural goalscorers and the likes of Dowd and Eberle will chip in, but we don't have the depth of Belfast.

After tonight it feels like the Giants name is on the trophy, but with 5 games still to play against them who knows.

Hopefully Vally will be back for Wednesday.

Regards

Doom

Right now I feel we’d need to win 4 of the 5 against them to have a chance. Just can’t see it happening.

I've just said the same to my mate. I think we'll need to win at least 3 against Giants and possibly 4.

Cardiff aren't a factor. They may overtake one of us, but not both.

Regards

Doom

[paul johnston]

First thing I would say that was one of my favourite games of this year.
Dreadful finishing by us (which may cost us the league in the long run), and decent netminding were again the difference.
This Devils side is very average, with the slowest, most immobile D I've seen from them.
Our skating should have seen us through to the W in ot ( bar the finishing and netminding issues). I think we play too submissive when the opposition takes the nettie off for the extra outskater and cost us again. Im not sure Todd and Ellerby Is the go to pairing there. I'd go with Jones and ASD.

[SteelerBlade]

Side note, all 4 goals against this weekend were with a man less. PK training this week I think.

[JoeySlats#13]

Great game, probably one of the best overall I've seen had a good bit of everything bar a win! Thought we outplayed them overall but didn't convert our chances, Carruth was fantastic but it did feel like a lot of our shots were hitting the middle of his body. We certainly missed Vallerand but no one looked out of place with the line shuffling that happened, I thought it was a good team performance.

Barry was solid and unfortunate to not come away with a win. We dominated possession and shots on goal and would go as far to say we would expect to win 9/10 games if we put out that performance - however, with the Giants tying it up late and going on to win the shootout and us going down on penalty shots it's hard not to think of what could have been.

We fought hard in puck battles and forechecked well often causing the Devils to turn the puck over in the D zone. They stayed in the game and obviously Carruth was robbed of MOTM and made the extra man pay twice. Loved the 2 scraps, was surprised to see Traversa drop them but he did well - Dowdy doesn't lose fights as we've all learnt - thought he was gonna grab the game winner with seconds to go as well.

Overall a good performance just not the result we wanted - would be brilliant to see that performance again Wednesday and I'd hope to see a win out of it - also praying we see Vallerand back!

[Doom]

Whilst disappointing the way the evening finished, I don't think any of us would have complained if we were told heading into March we were one of only two teams with the league title in our own hands.

I make Belfast slight favourites now, but it's likely to come down to our series with them and maybe we'll turn out to be a team with a style of play Belfast don't like.

It should be a cracking end to the season.

Regards

Doom