Coming home for the first time since November 24th, the Steel will play Saturday and Sunday. The Steel come into the weekend in fourth place (11-6-2) in the USHL's Eastern Conference, three points behind Green Bay - though the Steel have five fewer games played than the Gamblers.
Saturday, the Steel (4-4-1 at home) host the Western Conference's fourth place Des Moines Buccaneers (12-11-1), who have struggled mightily on the road, to the tune of a 3-7-1 record. The Bucs are coming off a brutal 9-0 loss to the Gamblers on Friday night in Green Bay. Among the low points in the game were Green Bay's six-goal second period, and Elgin, IL native Roman Uchyn posting a -3 rating with 14 penalty minutes in his first USHL game.
(Presumably) lining up for the Bucs will be three forwards who are former Steel property: Zach Saar, Ali Thomas, and Luke Voltin. For those of you unfamiliar with the Voltin saga (or possibly just forgot about it), here's what happened: Mid-season last year, Voltin is cut from the USNTDP. At the time, the Steel had the worst record in the USHL, and therefore top waiver claim priority. Voltin wanted to continue to play in the USHL, but refused to report to the Steel. After about a week, the Steel found a taker in Des Moines, who sent affiliate defenseman Eric Sade ('94) in exchange for Voltin. Saar and Thomas were acquired by the Bucs in one-for-one trades (Saar last season for Ray Pigozzi, Thomas in October for affiliate defenseman Peter Tischke).
Sunday afternoon, the Steel host the sixth-place Youngstown Phantoms (9-12-0 overall, 4-6-0 road). The Phantoms will be playing their third road game in three days on Sunday, having lost in Dubuque on Friday 5-1, and staying in Dubuque overnight for a rematch Saturday night.
Though the Steel have been rather mediocre at home thus far, this weekend should provide them a good chance to pick up four points. There's no way to know if Des Moines will be totally crushed by their blowout loss on Friday, or if they'll put it behind them and come out flying. Sunday will have Youngstown playing their third game in three days, which always tends to lead to some sloppy hockey.
Given Youngstown's three-in-three, I'd really like to see Chris Nell get the start Sunday afternoon. Nobody's going to argue that Sak isn't a workhorse, but Nell needs ice time to stay sharp. Why not get it against a team that shouldn't be generating many quality chances?
FINAL NOTES: The Steel are getting very close to having their full roster for the first time all year, with defenseman Joel Benson coming off suspension. Christian Heil returns Sunday. Mackenzie MacEachern's IR stint is hopefully coming to a close soon.
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