The Sheriff appeared on BBC Radio Sheffield talking to their hosts about his teams upcoming double header (this past weekend) against Sheffield Steelers (in which each team won one game a piece) while also having an on-air chit-chat with Steelers new enforcer Mike Sgroi. The chat with Sgroi is the interesting point – an insight into what some of these tough guys think about one another. If you’re looking fireworks and trash talking then don’t bother, the respect is clearly there between these two heavies who have been doing the dirty work for their teams for over a decade now but it is worth tuning in to hear how they set up their fight for the first period of the first game between the two teams. (They did indeed go in the first and McMorrow got the edge).

Detractors will crucify this as them ‘arranging the fight’, but in Hockey this is something McMorrow would be expected to do. He is the leagues top enforcer and when someone new comes in to enforce for his team it’s only right that McMorrow gives him his stage, welcomes him to the league and lets him set a tone for his own team. Thankfully when it did happen McMorrow won the scrap and then the teams got on with the Hockey. The Giants won that one and lost the following night were both big boys kept clear of one another.

McMorrow goes on to say how he’d like every team to carry a player like himself and Sgroi on the line-ups and it’s hard to disagree with him. It would be good to see an extra element of entertainment on top of the skillful hockey some teams are producing and it would help add to the rivalries.

The irony in this radio piece though is that this is the same Sheffield team that earlier in the season said they were going down the skill hockey only route and that McMorrow wouldn’t be able to “buy a fight” against Sheffield but after a poor start to the year they have addressed a potential weakness by adding some toughness to the line-up (or if not to change fortunes at least give the fans something to cheer about) to fight, who else, but Sean McMorrow.

After such a rough start to the season which had some fans asking questions about the ability of the team recruited, things have been starting to come together for the Giants, they have now won five games on the bounce, including one in the challenge cup, and have silenced a lot of the doubters.

One of the players under serious scrutiny before a puck was even dropped, and perhaps unfairly, was Sean McMorrow, but the big man, who has dropped the gloves in nearly every game for the last month, went at it again tonight early, winning yet again and setting the tone for the Giants to go on and win. Most of his fights have came early in games and you would have thought by now opposition players would avoid him at all costs as he keeps winning and giving his team a boost, but whatever he says works and it gets the crowd going.

From then on the hockey stuff takes over, or in tonight’s case, Jeff Szwez takes over and sends us top with a shutout win over the team likely to be our biggest rival for the championship.

Below is a YouTube clip of McMorrow’s scrap with Bergin, no goal highlights as of yet.

Some of them goals were very tidy. The finishes by Burgoyne and Martin were especially good and I can see why Martin got man-of-the-match. It is good to have him back on the ice and hopefully for the rest of the season.

Fight Reviews:

1) Payette gets the early going but Rushton catches him with the left hook sending him to the ice. Rushton throws the arms up doing a lap of honor to get the fans off their seats. The atmosphere is rocking.

2) Payette seemed as anxious to stir something up as Rushton but it was Rushton who got it going. Not many punches thrown and Rushton falls to the ice. In the penalty box both guys exchanging strong words.

3) In the video you can only catch the tail end of a hit. Not sure who it was on but it was by Payette and Rushton didn’t like it. He throws a punch at Payette and a big scrum ensues.

4) The video shows nothing of the Phillips fight but by all accounts Phillips caught his man flush with a punch dropping him to the ice.

The four fights tonight tie a club record for number of fights in a game.

Enter Jason Rushton. He has played four games now for the club getting in two fights so far and even scoring a goal and an assist with the limited ice time that has been afforded to him. He may not have scored in tonight’s contest but he was quick to drop the gloves, put the Vipers players off their game, give the Giants stars the freedom to play their game free of intimidation and ultimately win the game 4-1.

It was one of the bigger crowds of the season and the face-off had to be delayed due to the amount of people outside come 7.30 p.m. The game had been billed as a guaranteed fight night, a night were the Giants would show the Vipers that they were no longer push overs. The people bought into it and came in their droves for a nights entertainment.

The fighting came early and came often as well as goals for the Giants. Rushton was quick to drop the gloves with Payette sending an immediate message to the Vipers bench that the days of walking over the Giants physically and trying to put them off their game with physical intimidation were over. He beat up Payette and retired to the bench to serve his five for fighting, a two plus ten minute misconduct for instigating.

The Giants responded with the crowd behind them after the physical action by scoring the games first goals. Tyler Howells grabbed the first goal minutes after the first fight and the Giants didn’t look back. Burgoyne, his blue line partner, made it two-nil going into the period break. Steve Thornton added a third early in the second and the Giants took control.

The fighting wasn’t over there however as Rushton went with Payette again. Clearly focusing on the Vipers goon and taking his concentration away from the Giants players, notably Thornton who had served a suspension earlier in the year for high sticking Payette.

It worked.
Payette got wound up more and more from the penalty box by Rushton who must have been all to happy to spend his time there having done his work with his fists than sit on the bench watching everyone else play.

Rushton decided to send one more message to Payette and that Vipers bench ahead of tomorrow nights game by going after him again. A bit of a scrum ensued and the upshot of it all was Rushton being tossed from the game.

The bonus of that was that he not only took one, but two Vipers players with him in the shape of Payette and Derek Campbell. Campbell who is one of the Vipers better players was now out of the way and the Giants could sail home for the victory.

Tonight was clearly a sign of the place of the enforcer in the game of hockey and Rushton’s team-mates clearly fed off the increase in crowd noise and the ability to focus on their game without having to look over their backs. Evidence also stands in the entertainment it brought the crowd. Not only did it stoke up a building rivalry to new levels but it also had the crowd on their feet with reports from those in the thick of the atmosphere suggesting it was as noisy tonight as it had been in a long time in the recently very quiet Odyssey.

I want to see win’s first and foremost like the next guy, but its clear the best winning hockey to watch is the hockey that comes with some nasty stuff. It is that stuff that really generates a buzz and boisterous crowd in the stands. Just ask fans of the Philadelphia Flyers about that one.

The best part about the whole thing is that the two teams go head-to-head tomorrow night again in the Odyssey and this time I will be tuning into the webcast. A win is crucial and maybe the physical stuff will have been beaten out of Rushton and Payette though the way the game appeared to come to a close tonight you can bet their might well be scored to settle.