Treble-winning Sheffield Steelers are a 'special' group, hails head coach Aaron Fox

The head coach cut an emotional figure on the ice on Sunday night as Steelers defeated the Belfast Giants 3-1 to win the Elite League play-off final and complete the third and last leg of the domestic treble.

They had already won the Elite League regular season title and the Challenge Cup in the last two months. And for all the Steelers have won in what for periods has been an all-conquering history since erupting onto the Sheffield sporting landscape in the early 1990s, this was their first clean sweep of trophies for 23 years.

It also comes after one of the darkest moments in theirs and the league’s history, when Nottingham Panthers player Adam Johnson died in an incident on the ice in a game against the Steelers in Sheffield on October 28.

Memories of that tragedy and the effect it had on both teams were not far from the surface when both head coach Fox and captain Robert Dowd spoke to the media while celebrating their play-off success on the ice.

“I’m honoured to be their coach this year,” said Fox. “What we’ve been through as a team is something that will never be forgotten.”

Dowd added: “It’s been a long year, there’s been a lot of ups and downs and it’s been an emotional one. To come through everything we have done and then top it off winning all three is special.”

The play-off final itself hinged on a refereeing decision that saw Belfast forward Greg Printz given a five-minute major penalty for boarding Steelers man Patrick Watling.

The Steelers took the advantage by taking the lead on the power play when Daniel Ciampini before Mikko Juusola made it a quickfire double.

Despite controlling the second period, Blake Speers halved the deficit for the Giants at the end of the stanza. Sheffield continued to keep Belfast at bay in a tense third and secured the win when Kevin Tansey slotted into an empty net with 63 seconds remaining to spark jubilant scenes. “What a year, what a group, I mean honestly this group is just different gravy,” beamed Fox, the 47-year-old from Minnesota who took charge of the Steelers almost five years to the day earlier.

“I loved us early doors, but after what we went through you never know how you’re going to come back. It’s not easy with the length of the league season, the play-offs is a different beast, I think I was probably more nervous for this game tonight than I was for any game this season but we’ve got our fans here banging the drum for us, and we’re banging the drum for them. This is for them.”

There were doubts over the fitness of inspirational captain Dowd before the play-off finals weekend after he sat out the two-legged quarter-final with Fife Flyers the previous weekend.

Even when asked afterwards was he fit enough to first face Guildford Flames in Saturday’s semi-final and then come back 24 hours later for the final, Dowd quipped: “We’ll say yes. Strap me up and put me out there, I’ll do something.”

And it was that desire and commitment to the cause that echoes throughout the Steelers locker room.

“We’re thin as could be right now,” admitted Fox, “but everybody stepped up, we had guys playing every other shift the last 30 minutes and it was just an incredible group of guys. There’s a character in this room that is through the roof. Every single guy made an impact this year, there were no passengers.”

Billingham-born 35-year-old forward Dowd is in his first year as captain after succeeding club legend Jonathan Phillips.

Dowd said: “At the start of the year you set your goals and our main goal was winning the league and then to win that and the Challenge Cup to put ourselves in this position is really a testament to all the boys in that room. All the stuff we’ve been through this year, it’s been a lot of ups but some very low downs, so to go through it together and come through it together...it’s a very special feeling.”

It would be natural now for thoughts to turn to next season and replicating the feat, and as always the head coach has player recruitment and retention issues that will be on his desk to deal with shortly.

But as he celebrated with his family on the ice, Fox said: “We’ll worry about next season later. I’m emotionally and mentally drained right now, I’m going to shut my computer for a little bit and enjoy my family who for 33 weeks doesn’t see me on the weekend. You can see how much it means to us all.”

In the NIHL National League, champions Leeds Knights finished off their play-off group campaign with a 5-3 win over Bees. They topped Pool A and head to Coventry for this weekend’s play-off finals.

Hull Seahawks saw their chances ended on Saturday night but finished the season on a high by beating Peterborough Phantoms 7-4 on Sunday.