Ice hockey: Brandon McNally knows what it will take Sheffield Steelers to win the EIHL play offs

He was on Cardiff Devils’ roster last May when they beat Belfast Giants 6-3 in the final at Nottingham.

On Saturday night, he finds himself in play off semi-final combat against his old team hoping his 2022-23 Steelers have now learned a way to stop letting their foot off the pedal.

The Sheffield winger doesn’t want a repeat of recent lapses in concentration when they take to the ice at Nottingham Arena.

Dips in form have haunted Sheffield in the second half of this season.

Last weekend’s aggregate win over Manchester Storm only went so far in addressing that.

Steelers were two goals to the good in the first leg but had to settle for a draw before finally putting the tie to bed.

“I think we still need to clean some things up,” said McNally.

Sheffield’s 2-2 first leg “got away” from them and they almost gave up a lead in the deciding match at Sheffield Arena, he said.

“When you are 2-0 up you can’t let teams back, especially in the play offs.”

He said the team had had to stay in control.

“We are a good team so we cannot get too high or too low. We want to play the full 60 minutes.”

McNally, who will play for Italy in the World Championships after the domestic season is over, added there had been plenty of games where Sheffield had “taken over and then we have a blip of five minutes and let teams back into it.

“If you play a full 60 then we are in good shape.

“We didn’t take care of business in the regular season, so now we have a chance to take care of business in the play offs.

“Anything can happen in one game.”

McNally will be bidding goodbye to two retiring team-mates, Jonathan Phillips and Brendan Connolly this weekend.

“They have both had great careers – I was happy I could play with them,” he said.

Steelers haven’t won the play off championship since 2016-17, a Paul Thompson side that included present-day team mates Phillips, Davey Phillips, and Robert Dowd.

Cardiff have won the last three finals, including the 2017/18 event when they beat Steelers 3-1, when Eric Neiley scored Sheffield’s only goal.

*Meanwhile Sébastien Piché won’t get a dramatic recall this weekend, after all.

The injured defenceman had put in a late bid to be considered, but The Star understands he hasn’t been able to prove his fitness and conditioning sufficiently to be a candidate.

The situation affecting Marco Vallerand and Niklas Nevalainen remains unclear as does whether Sheffield will ask Alex Graham to be part of their squad, or allow him to represent Steeldogs in the NIHL national play off finals.

Steeldogs play Raiders in the semi-final at Coventry’s Skydome Arena at 1.30 pm on Saturday.