Even yet, their victory on Saturday afternoon in Nottingham’s semi-final was far from easy.
They now have major problems with injuries in their forward lines.
After running into the rink boards, Brett Neumann was injured in the semifinals, and Marco Vallerand had to be carried off on a stretcher.
When Sheffield’s quest for the Grand Slam comes to a close, neither will be available.
Mark Simpson was already out for Sheffield and is unlikely to return, and captain Robert Dowd is playing through injury.
The recently crowned EIHL winners came back from a slight deficit at the beginning of the third period, but they did more than enough to win (6-3).
Today they play Play Off holders Belfast Giants, who qualified due to a late overtime goal from Greg Printz, against Cardiff Devils.
A power play goal from Josh Nicholls had given Sheffield the lead but they found themselves trailing from goals from Jordan Klimek and Matt Alvaro.
Defenceman Brien Diffley scored a rare equaliser before Mitchell Balmas made it 3-2.
Steven McParland and sure there was parity again at 52:35 and it was anybody’s guess what would happen next.
Steelers answered that with three straight goals from Brandon Whistle, Daniel Ciampini and an empty netter from Scott Allen, on 59 minutes.
Given the enormity of the scoreline gap, Flames felt hard done after giving it their all.
However, they lost that final session by a score of 40 to 25 and gave up five points.
Sheffield had six different scorers on their roster.
Man of the match went to Patrick Watling for the Steelers.
Despite having to play with three lines due to injuries to Neumann and Vallerand, Sheffield’s coach Aaron Fox stated his team had played a strong defense.
Flames manager Paul Dixon stated that the Steelers had established the standard that everyone else had to meet.
The 2,000 Steelers supporters are hoping that Giants coach Adam Keef will agree with them later today.
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