Hockey: Steel in first place in USHL Eastern Division, hit speed bump with two losses

Losing hockey games is not something the Chicago Steel has experienced much of this season.

The Steel is in first place in the USHL Eastern Conference, sports the best record in the USHL, and has the most points in the league. It has the best home winning record, and has scored the most goals in the league.

To top it all off, the Steel, prior to this past weekend, had not lost a game since November. Since then, the Steel won 13 straight games.

But the USHL season is not something which ends in January and championships are not won in January. Sometimes, things don't always go as well as teams or their fans would like them to.

The Steel had a rough weekend with two losses to the Cedar Rapids Rough Riders.

The Rough Riders, currently in seventh place in the USHL East Conference, defeated the Steel Saturday night in Cedar Rapids 5-2. The following afternoon at the Fox Valley Ice Arena in Geneva, Cedar Rapids scored four goals in the third period to beat the Steel 7-3.

The weekend marked the first time this season the Steel has lost two games in a row and is the team's first losing streak of theseason.

“I think in the end the weekend will have been a good weekend for us,” Steel coach Brock Sheahan said. “I was disappointed in the way we played in general. We started the game well today (Sunday). But then they (Cedar Rapids) pushed back hard. And then I think we did not play consistently and we got out of some of our good habits we had been in.”

One of those habits the Steel had been in is averaging 33 shots per game this season which is second most in the USHL. The Steel were outshot 33-25 Sunday. Fourteen of those shots against the home side were allowed in third period.

“You have to go through some adversity during a season,” Sheahan said. “If you just kept winning, you would not learn much or have those experiences to make you a better team. We are not the team we want to be yet through 34 games.”

On Sunday the Steel fell behind 2-0 in the first period before forward Tyler Carpenter scored with 5:44 remaining making it 2-1. Carpenter, a Palatine native, will play his college hockey next season at Notre Dame.

“We know what we have to do to get this turned back around,” Carpenter said. “Championship teams don't win every game. They go through adversity and they turn things around. We can't wait to get back on the ice and get ready for next weekend.

During our winning streak, everyone on the roster was producing. Everyone was feeling it and making things happen. It was like every team who stepped in the building against us was scared to play us. We just caught a good Cedar Rapids team who was playing well right now."