Before CHL - Eurohockey presents Sheffield Steelers

Sheffield Steelers

Twenty years ago come October Sheffield Steelers skated out at Tilburg, Holland for their first sortie into Europe. They were, at that time just five years old and had won the league title in only their second major year.

However, when they were drawn against Frolunda Indians and top Finnish side Jyp Jyvskyla in the Champions Hockey League, people said, quite rightly, this would be their biggest test.

Sheffield Steelers are the most successful British Hockey side with eight League titles and nine Championships behind them in their twenty five year history in the major leagues.

They have a new coach his year, Paul Thompson, last year he was with Aalborg and the year before with Troja of the Allvenskan. He has put together a mixture of toughness and skill with the emphasis being on speed.

To this end the stand out forward must be Mathieu Roy, brought to Sheffield from Florida last year he topped the EIHL scoring charts with 101 points overall scoring 46 goals.

In defence Ben O’Connor stands out, after playing four seasons in Europe - three in Kazakstan- he came back to join his father Mike in Sheffield.

An Offensive minded defenceman he achieved 49 points for Sheffield last year in just 57 games.

Partnering Roy up front is top scorer Colton Fretter, a feisty, diminutive player who he was third top scorer last year and scored sixteen goals for Klagenfurter in the EBEL two years ago and supporters of Iserlohn Roosters may remember him playing a season with them in 2011-12. He will play alongside his linemate Tyler Mosienko, himself a forty point player last year.

Another centreman, who will be familiar to Swedish supporters, is Fredrik Vestberg. He spent thirteen seasons in the Swedish Allvenskan, the last eight with his home town club Almtuna.

The defence is also patrolled by long time servant Rod Sarich, he has played with the Steelers for five hundred plus games and if he hits you-you stay hit!

A resume of Sheffield Steelers would not be complete without mentioning captain Jonathan Philips he is ninth in the overall scoring charts and a Great Britain international and brings a whole host of experience and leadership qualities.

I don’t think Sheffield has expectations of getting far in the competition given the strength of the opposition but I’m sure they’ll give a good account of themselves. And I sincerely hope this gives a greater insight into one of the clubs from Britain.

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