Sheffield Steelers take a day-trip to Sutton-in-Ashfield and had a great day-out with Sutton Sting's kids!

Finnerty was joined by Chad Huttle, Lee Esders and Tom Squires who put more than 50 kids through their paces on the ice and in the sports hall.  When the session broke for lunch Steelers star forward Jeff Legue turned-up to give some one-on-one feedback to the kids as well as sign dozens of autographs including the Sting's own PCM Clarke and Meyers jerseys that the Panther's kids were proudly wearing which brought a smile to the Steelers players faces.  Finnerty said "It's a great facility at Sutton and they have a great programme going on there for the kids.  Its great for me and the boys to go down there and work with the kids and I was pleased with their work both on and off the ice.  I hope we can do a lot more of this kind of work because it helps the kids and it helps the players too."

The Steelers community programme is not just about hockey and the message given to kids by Ryan Finnerty and his players is more about working hard at school and maintaining good grades in class in order that you can exploit all of the opportunities that exist in hockey, and not just in the UK either, but maybe even in North America.  Steelers US import Chad Huttle had a captivated audience when he spoke about college schooling and hockey back home in the hockey hot-bed of Minnesota, he said. "I tell the kids about working harder than the next guy even if you are not as skilful a player.  Coaches like hard working players and if you work hard at hockey then I believe you should work hard in class because you will then have something to fall back-on after your hockey career is over."

It's now time for the Sting's "Big Earners" to show their "worth".  Club Boss Gary Apsley looks ahead to the final eight games of the season as the Sting mount their final challenge on Solway Sharks and try to secure a play-off place and gain a seat in Division 1 next season.

Sutton's seniors are moving in to the final stage of the 2011/12 ice hockey season and Coach Ian Johnson is keen to make sure that as a minimum 2nd place is secured to earn the Sting their first Play-off place as they chase a spot in English National League Division 1.  Sting boss Gary Apsley knows that 2nd place is there for the taking and on current form it's the Sting who will have to lose the runner-up slot rather than their nearest rivals taking it from them.   Apsley said. "There's seemingly a lot of speculation going on with some teams in our league about Sutton Sting and to be honest most of it makes me laugh!  Every week I hear that one coach or another is having a pop at us saying we're 'this' or 'that' and I just don't get it.  Why don't they concentrate on their own team rather than worrying about what we're doing?'

Next-up for the Sting is Senators in another local derby at Ice Sheffield.  Coach Johnson will be looking for his senior Sting side to consolidate their position near the top of the English National League Division 2 ahead of Flintshire Freeze as they face Sheffield Senators for the second time in a month.

The game last month on the "fancy" pad at Ice Sheffield saw the Sting victorious once again but the Senators are getting better and the game was just as lively as previous encounters with both teams seemingly raising their game which is creating an interesting rivalry which Sting Boss, Gary Apsley, thinks is good for both Clubs and the game.  He said "I was on the bench for the last game between the Sting and the Sens and it was a great game too.  Sheffield came at us on the counter and took the lead then put 5 men behind the puck trying to neutralise our threat.  It was a brave strategy but in the end our greater quality shone through and we scored the goals to win us the game and get us the much needed points so I was happy."

After two months in the cyber wilderness, the club website, sutttonsting.co.uk is back up and running much to the relief of Sting members and the club's followers.

In late November last year the website was hacked by a cyber hooligan who wreaked havoc by infecting the site and database with obscene information and images which forced the closure of the site.  For the past two months CMS Design has been re-writing the code and back-end of the Sting website and it was published live earlier today.

Club Chairman Ian Johnson has asked CMS to take all appropriate steps to prevent a repeat of the "attack" on the site which left the Club without it's primary form of communication for two months causing difficulties for all of the junior operations.  Speaking today Mr Johnson said, "I'm pleased that CMS were able to take the time to re-establish the site and I know that it seems to have taken an age since the original site was infected in the last week of November."  He added, "I hope that we can identify the guilty party and I have CMS to take whatever steps they can to find those responsible."