Sheffield Steelers hand out latest "a**e" kicking: plus Robert Dowd hits 800

And Sheffield Steelers are the team handing out that corporal punishment.

On Wednesday night, they thrashed Coventry Blaze 6-0 in the Challenge Cup semi-final first leg.

Blaze have only pride to play for in the second leg, it appears.

Their coach Danny Stewart paid homage to the team that had whupped his own.

He employed the same terminology as Dundee Stars' chief Marc LeFebvre used recently to describe the mauling their teams had received at the hands of Steelers.

After the majority of 1,681 home supporters left the SkyDome Arena in a state of shell-shock, Stewart could only recognise the gulf that had existed over 60 minutes.

"This was a game we had to be at our best" he said.

"This team over there, Sheffield, is arguably the best team I have seen, ever, in my time here.

"They are another level and we had to find another level to stay with them.

"We went the other way, we dropped a level.

"They brought our best today and kicked our ass."

Steelers' coach Aaron Fox had ordered his team to "start on time" and they certainly did that - essentially winning the game inside a pulsating first 10 minutes.

Mark Simpson, Robert Dowd and Daniel Ciampini had all hit the Coventry net by 09:40.

A Time Out didn't help either as Blaze were powerless to stop Scott Allen and Patrick Watling from adding two more before the first interval.

Exactly what a coach can say to rectify a 0-5 opening session is hard to guess.

If the message was to try and blunt Steelers' cutting edge from wreaking more damage, it only partially worked.

Allen hasn't been a prolific scorer this season, but he tipped in Dominic Cormier's point drive for his second of the night at 29:51.

It was indeed a cruel night for Blaze, as the slick professionalism of Steelers then shut up shop.

Even the apparent consolation of a Coventry goal was rubbed out at 52:23, the effort washed out for an interference minor on John Curran.

At the end of the night, it was all about numbers.

Steelers' fans will be checking their bank balance to fund their ticket for the Challenge Cup Final, despite the apparent formality of the second semi final leg at Sheffield Arena.

Matt Greenfield recorded his eighth goaltending shutout, (stopping 32 shots) which compared with his same total for the entire 2022-23 campaign.

And what about Robert Dowd?

In his first season as captain, he is leading the team to an increasingly-likely, multiple trophy haul.

His own, personal number currently is 800.

By Saturday night, that's how many times he will have played at Elite League level, according to the EIHL statistician Jim Lydon.

'Dowdy' joins some celebrated company:

The 10 others to have achieved this are: Russell Cowley, Cardiff, Coventry 801, Jason Hewitt, Manchester, London, Basingstoke, Sheffield, 811, Ashley Tait, Sheffield, Coventry, Milton Keynes, Belfast, 811, Davey Phillips, Coventry, Hull, Manchester, Sheffield, Belfast, 852, Ben Davies, Braehead, Coventry, Guildford, Cardiff, 875, Mark Garside Edinburgh, Belfast, 887, Robert Lachowicz, Nottingham, Guildford, Glasgow, 902, Mark Richardson, Basingstoke, Nottingham, Cardiff, 1060, Matt Myers, Cardiff, Sheffield, Nottingham, 1115, and Jonathan Phillips Cardiff, Sheffield, 1175.