Sheffield Steeldogs
Nation Cup semi-final | Sat 19 Feb 22
Club History:
The Sheffield Steeldogs franchise were formed as the Sheffield Scimitars back in 1994 and they played in Division 2 under the old British league structure and for their first 8 years of existence they suffered a real drought of any sort of success. But from 2002 to 2005 the Scimitars had their most successful period in their history, they won their first league title in the 2002-2003 season and just missed out on the play-off title, losing in the final. In the following season they fell just short in the ENL league title race, they finished 2nd but they did go one better in the play-offs by winning the final. In the 2004-05 season they finally put it all together and completed a league and play-off double.
After this double winning season, the Scimitars made the move up to the EPL and for their duration in the EPL they have always been a competitive team but unfortunately despite this they never tasted any success in terms of Silverware. In 2010 there was an ownership change and a rebrand of the team in Sheffield as they became the Sheffield Steeldogs and continued in the EPL.
During the Dogs time in the EPL they were again a competitive team but once more didn’t really taste any success and their best return was a 3rd placed finish. With the collapse of the EPL and faced with dropping into the NIHL the Steeldogs really took advantage of this and they won the league in their first season at this level. The Steeldogs were also one of the founder members of the NIHL National and they have a strong roster for this season ahead.
MK Lightning
League Game | Sun 20 Feb 22
Club History:
The Milton Keynes Lightning franchise was born out of the void left by the Milton Keynes Kings team that moved to Solihull to replace the Blaze who moved into their new rink in Coventry. The Lightning franchise was formed in 2002 and they entered the EPL where they saw some instant success.
In the Lightning’s first 4 seasons they were crowned the play-off champions in every single season and League title winners in 2 of those 4 years. They were the dominant force in the early days of the EPL before the big money teams of the defunct BNL joined, Manchester and Basingstoke dropping out of the Elite and then latterly the Red Hockey money that funded Telford’s success.
In the later years of the EPL Milton Keynes were always a good side and regularly competed for trophies despite falling short of success on many occasions, their final EPL success came with a playoff final win in 2017 which turned out to be the final hurrah of the EPL itself.
The Lightning made the brave decision to step up to the Elite League for the 2018-19 season and their departure plus Guildford joining them ultimately led to the demise of the EPL. In their two seasons in the Elite, MK struggled to 11th placed finishes both times and ultimately the spiralling costs of competing led to a messy exit and ownership dispute that left the very future of the Lightning in real jeopardy.
Thankfully for the Lightning fans and UK hockey as a whole, the “new” Lightning joined the new NIHL National division where they ply their trade to this day.
SHEFFIELD STEELDOGS
The Coach:
Tonight’s opposing head coach is Greg Wood and he started his playing career in Sheffield and he came up through their junior system and during his first season in the seniors he split his time between the Steelers and Bison in the Elite League. What followed was a season in the EPL with the Sheffield Scimitars and he was then rewarded in the next two years with full seasons in Basingstoke before a short stop in Coventry for a season, all in the Elite League. It was after these 3 years that he made the decision to drop down from the countries top league into the EPL with the Manchester Phoenix and he stayed here for 2 years before finally returning home with the Steeldogs and he has remained in this organisation ever since.
In the 2015-16 season Wood took his first coaching job, as the player-coach of the Steeldogs and he was in this role for 2 years before returning to focus on playing. He took up the non-playing head coach role in 2020-21 for the cancelled season so this is going to be his first true season behind the bench in Sheffield.
MK LIGHTNING
The coach:
Tonight’s opposing head coach is Lewis Clifford, he started out his career with a singular season in Oxford in the old ENL and after this he made the move to Milton Keynes where he has stayed ever since. Clifford was a forward and he played for the MK Thunder for the next 9 years in the ENL and despite representing the team in a lot of games he was mainly on the team for his work rate rather than point scoring ability.
For his first venture into coaching, Clifford stepped up as a player coach for the Thunder between 2009-2011 and following this he retired from playing to step behind the bench as an assistant coach with the Milton Keynes Lightning in the EPL. This was a role he stayed in for the next 6 seasons and following the Lightning’s move up to the Elite League he made the choice to step down to the Thunder and take up the head coaching duties in the NIHL.
With the move back down into the countries second tier the Lightning turned to Clifford to be the head coach and this season will be 2nd that he takes charge of the Lightning as a head coach after a 6th place finish in the 2019-20 season.
SHEFFIELD STEELDOGS
Previous Seasons Performance:
NIHL National – 7th – GP50 – W25 – L22 – OTL3 – GF191 – GA194 – PTS53
This Seasons Meetings:
25/09/2021 Sheffield Steeldogs 7-2 Swindon Wildcats
16/10/2021 Swindon Wildcats 3-4 Sheffield Steeldogs
28/11/2021 Sheffield Steeldogs 0-3 Swindon Wildcats
15/01/2022 Swindon Wildcats 4-3 Sheffield Steeldogs
16/01/2022 Sheffield Steeldogs 4-5 Swindon Wildcats
Previous Meetings:
18/10/2019 Sheffield Steeldogs 2-3 Swindon Wildcats
23/11/2019 Swindon Wildcats 7-3 Sheffield Steeldogs
20/12/2019 Sheffield Steeldogs 4-1 Swindon Wildcats
25/01/2020 Swindon Wildcats 7-1 Sheffield Steeldogs
MK LIGHTNING
Previous Seasons Performance:
NIHL National – 6th – GP50 – W24 – L20 – OTL6 – GF201 – GA205 – PTS54
21/22 Season Meetings So Far:
07/10/2021 Milton Keynes Lightning 5-4 Swindon Wildcats
30/10/2021 Swindon Wildcats 7-4 Milton Keynes Lightning
06/11/2021 Milton Keynes Lightning 1-6 Swindon Wildcats
30/12/2021 Swindon Wildcats 4-9 Milton Keynes Lightning
05/02/2022 Milton Keynes Lightning 3-1 Swindon Wildcats
Previous Season Meetings:
26/10/2019 Swindon Wildcats 7-0 Milton Keynes Lightning
03/11/2019 Milton Keynes Lightning 1-5 Swindon Wildcats
18/01/2020 Milton Keynes Lightning 3-4 Swindon Wildcats
29/02/2020 Swindon Wildcats 4-5 Milton Keynes Lightning
Words by James Handscombe-Buckley
