Leeds Knights need to match 'big-game mentality' of Sheffield Steeldogs in semi-final showdown

Not that we’re suggesting he would underestimate any other team, of course.

Outside of Ice Sheffield, not many would have fancied Greg Wood’s team picking up one piece of silverware last season, let alone two, the Steeldogs spectacularly adding the play-off crown to the NIHL National Cup they had lifted earlier in the year.

It was a stunning achievement by Wood and his players, driven along through the campaign by the attacking trio of Jason Hewitt, Matt Bissonnette and Alex Graham, married to one of the meanest defences in the second tier and some consistently solid goaltending from Dmitri Zimozdra.

Nothing much has changed for the Steeldogs in that sense, all of the aforementioned personnel remain with the organisation. This season, however, they have regularly been denied the talents of veteran Hewitt and a player in Graham regarded by many as the brightest young talent in the British game.

Hewitt has been restricted to just eight appearances this season due to injury, while Graham has only been available to the Steeldogs on a stop-start basis depending on when parent club Sheffield Steelers require him for Elite League duty.

When the 20-year-old has been available though, he has enjoyed a massive impact. So far this season he has amassed 49 points – including 23 goals – in just 22 appearances.

Tonight’s first leg of the NIHL National Cup semi-final at Ice Sheffield sees him face-off against Leeds for the first time this season, the Knights having won all four previous meetings between the two.

Hewitt also returns to action for the first time since early October, enabling Wood to reunite his top line.

It’s a threat Aldridge is well aware of, coupled with coming up against a team he knows has the kind of ‘big-game mentality’ that produces success.

“They won two trophies last year and I don’t think anybody in the league would have said that was going to happen,” said Aldridge. “They are a big game hockey team, there is no doubt about that.

“We’re under no illusions, these are two massive games. Experience is going to come into it, they’ve got a wealth of experience playing in these kind of games and we probably haven’t.

“We know it’s going to be a tough test for us but these are the games you want your guys to show up for and I believe we will.”

Aldridge is quick to dismiss the relevance of the previous meetings that have seen the Knights come out on top each time and believes Hewitt’s return to the hosts’ line-up of gives them another dimension to their offence.

“He brings everything to that team on the ice,” said Aldridge. “He’s a tough kid, he finishes his hits, he can control the game – he almost finds a way to slow the game down and then they almost pounce on you.

“He changes the way that they play, there’s no doubt about that. The first couple of games against us, they played a much faster game without him but they obviously miss him and it will be interesting to see how they change with him back in the line-up.

“When he’s on that top line, they are very dangerous.”

As for his own team, Aldridge was pleased to see them return to winning ways with a comfortable 7-2 win over bottom of the table Hull Seahawks on Wednesday, particularly after suffering their first back-to-back losses at the weekend against title rivals Peterborough Phantoms.

"To come through the Hull game unscathed as we did, was what we wanted, really,” added Aldridge. “We had to take a bit of momentum into the Steeldogs game as well, that’s what I was looking for in Hull and, to be fair, we probably got that a bit in the third period.

"Matty Haywood’s second goal was a proper example of a leader’s goal – he’s basically saying ‘right’ I’m going to set the tone here’ and it was good because it was just what we needed.

"We gained confidence off that, got some momentum and got another one quick one and we were able to close out the game well after they had got it back to 4-2 early in the third.”