Play-off dismay yet again for Steelers as Blaze triumph

With the Elite League title lost several weeks ago to Nottingham Panthers, the 2012-13 campaign got even worse for the South Yorkshire club on Sunday night when a 6-5 aggregate victory for Coventry Blaze dumped them out of the play-offs at the first hurdle for the third time in the last four years.

The last two post-season failures have come on head coach Ryan Finnerty’s watch and pressure will be applied on owner Tony Smith from some fans to take action.

Finnerty and his players have an opportunity to save their season - and in some cases quite probably their jobs - if they can upset the odds and somehow overturn a 4-1 deficit when they head to Nottingham tomorrow night for the second leg of the Challenge Cup final. It doesn’t look too promising.

Last year it was Derek Campbell who ended Steelers’ play-off ambitions early at Ice Sheffield, his hat-trick leading unfancied Hull Stingrays to a stunning victory at the same stage of the post-season.

Campbell was back to haunt the Steelers in Coventry colours on Sunday night, but it was his team-mate Shea Guthrie who proved the difference this time, scoring a hat-trick for Paul Thompson’s side, with his overtime winner coming on the powerplay after Drew Fata had been controversially called for interference.

It was Guthrie’s third-period goal in the first leg at the Skydome Arena on Saturday – squirming through the legs of Steelers’ netminder John DeCaro – that had given Blaze renewed hope.

Crucially, it saw them head to Sheffield trailing by just the one goal, the Steelers had prevailing 3-2 thanks to goals from defenceman Fata, Jason Hewitt and the impressive Tylor Michel.

But two goals from Guthrie 24 hours later – the second an 11th-minute powerplay strike – took Blaze ahead on aggregate and turned up the heat on the favourites.

Rod Sarich brought Steelers back on level terms again when he scored at 30.13 and then, just over a minute later, Michel brought the biggest cheer of the night from the home fans when his 32nd-minute goal put them 5-4 ahead overall.

But Coventry refused to lie down and came storming back again, levelling through Dustin Cameron at 46.50.

That was how it stayed until overtime, Guthrie stepping up just under two minutes in to take Coventry to a play-off semi-final with Belfast Giants at Nottingham’s National Ice Centre next Saturday.

Belfast saw off Edinburgh Capitals 7-4 on aggregate, while Nottingham edged out Fife Flyers 5-4 on aggregate to set up a semi-final encounter with Cardiff Devils, 12-9 aggregate winners over Braehead Clan.

Coventry’s win keeps alive hopes that their widely-respected head coach can end his 18-year time in charge at the club with some silverware before heading off for a coaching job Sweden.

Clearly delighted after causing an upset in South Yorkshire, Thompson said afterwards: “I could not be more proud of the guys.

“They have been the most enjoyable group I have worked with. We spent hours and hours and hours studying Sheffield. All the work we did with video and the team meetings was worth it. We executed in the areas I knew we could. It was a war over the two games, but we were the best team in every area tonight.”