Jones: Owen is one of those big-game players

Photo: Dean Woolley

Defenseman Sam Jones spent a year with Fife Flyers before heading south to join Sheffield Steelers, and he'll be hoping his new team can overturn a one-goal aggregate deficit over his old when they meet in the Viaplay Challenge Cup Semi-Final on Wednesday night. They go into the second leg 3-2 behind after the first leg in Kirkcaldy in January.

“I think that game was almost better than the shoreline suggested, we had a couple of unlucky ones - one off my stick - that went in and our offense wasn’t exactly clicking at that time, it was part of that 5-6 game stretch where nothing much worked for us, but we’ve made some additions and I think we’ve got our scoring touch back now,” began Jones. “If we play at home the same way we did up there, we’ll be in a decent spot. Fife is a hard rink to play in as the crowd can really get on you, but to battle back from two down and not get stressed out was positive.

“We’ll be at home with another huge crowd, and the support we’ve had this season has been unbelievable. We had three games over Christmas where two were sold out and the next was almost was, and lately we’ve had games with 7-8,000 people in the building which is a tribute to everyone off the ice who puts in such a lot of work to give us every chance to win. We want to repay that, starting on Wednesday by making the final.”

With nine weeks to go in the 2022/23 season, the Sheffield Steelers are still in contention for both the league title, a Challenge Cup final play, and have already secured a playoff spot. Is this exactly where they’d have wanted to be? “It is, but we had a little bad run in the league and let a few games slip so we’re not exactly satisfied yet. In Sheffield, we’re here to win trophies and expected to do that, so we’re looking forward to Wednesday in the Semi-Final. Fife have nothing to lose and came come in with that mentally to leave it all out there, and sometimes that can be tough to play against.”

Fife have yet to score at the Utility Arena this season, but if ever there was a goalie who could backstop them to a place in the final it would be Shane Owen. “It’s definitely something we’ve said, in that Shane Owen is one of those goalies who can stand on his head and win his team a hockey game, he’s a big part of the reason why we can’t take this game lightly,” explained Jones. “I didn’t play with I’m in Fife but I’ve played against him several times and he is one of those big-game players. We have to be ready and make sure we’re clinical around the net. He almost seems to do better on a team where he’s facing a lot of shots, so we have to be careful that we’re not throwing too much at him from the outside where he can see it as that’s where he really gets into a groove.

"We need people in front of him, and make sure we work hard in front of the net. We have very good goaltending as well, so if we can get one or two early it should make things better for us."

25-year-old Jones is now in his second full season in Sheffield, and he’s a huge admirer of his coaches. "Aaron and Carter are amazing, I have a lot of respect for what they do and especially how they’ve been with me since I came to Sheffield. They spend just about every waking minute at the rink cutting video and going over different scenarios. Importantly, though, they are very good at condensing video to what we need to see - some coaches might spend 20-30 minutes going through video and players lose focus, but they give us the bits we need really well and make sure we see everything we need to. They always make sure we’re prepared ad I can’t complain about a thing", Jones concluded.