No matter what rivalries exist between teams in the Elite League, there is no doubting that what the Sheffield Steelers have done in the Champions League has been good for the perception of the British game.
By winning four of their six games in the regular season phase, Aaron Fox’s side became the first Elite League team to reach the knockouts since the Nottingham Panthers in 2017 and, although they were eliminated on Tuesday by Eisbären Berlin in the last-16, notable wins over Swedish sides Växjö Lakers and Skellefteå and Czech sides Sparta Prague and Dynamo Pardubice will have made plenty sit up and take notice.
But before the Steelers started making waves in Europe, the Belfast Giants came before them.
While their first two seasons in the competition yielded just one win each, both over Czech opposition in Bílí Tygri Liberec and Ocelári Trinec, a year ago they came within a point of reaching the last-16 themselves, picking up home wins over Italian side Bolzano and Austrian giants Red Bull Salzburg and inflicting more Elite League misery on Dynamo Pardubice.
And while the Giants will have wished they were the ones taking on Europe’s elite in the knockout stages over the last couple of weeks, captain Mark Cooper has put rivalries aside and admitted what Sheffield achieved was a positive thing for the Elite League as a whole.
“I think it’s all good. It’s good for the League,” he concurred.
“I thought we made a statement last year in the CHL even though we weren’t able to get to the knockout round. What Sheffield has done is great for our League and shows what we’re capable of.
“I’ve seen it in my four years here, the League has gotten so much better and Sheffield was the cream of the crop last year. They deserved to get where they did and, as much as there is that rivalry between us, it was good to see them doing what they did for the League.”
Now, though, the ambition is to dethrone the Steelers and for the Giants to return to the promised land of the Champions League next season having missed out on European competition altogether this year, with last season’s runners-up the Cardiff Devils the Elite League’s Continental Cup representatives.
Currently, Adam Keefe’s side are seven points back of the Devils having played two games less than their rivals, although there is plenty of race still to be run, particularly headed into a busy Christmas period.
Having already faced the Steelers twice this season — both on the road and both ending in defeats, one in overtime — the Giants know the standard they need to meet but Cooper is confident they can do that, with that European goal driving them on.
“That’s our goal every year,” insisted the winger, who has played in two of the Giants’ three CHL campaigns.
“We’ve already had a taste of Sheffield this year. They’ve come in as the best team and that’s the team we want to take down and take back our trophies.
“That will lead us into Europe again and that’s what where we want to be.”