Happy Halloween!

Trick or Treat? We have a little treat for you! Check out a special Steel TV Halloween Edition. Steel TV caught up with a few of the players after practice to ask them what their favorite costume was growing up, and also what their favorite Halloween candy is.

To all those going trick-or-treating today, have fun and be safe!

Weekend Recap - Sweep on the Road!

Hello Steel Nation!

This past weekend the Chicago Steel traveled to Fargo, ND and Sioux City, IA for two games in two nights. The team was able to bring home road wins to make their record 7-2-1. They stand currently 3rd in the Eastern Conference of the USHL.

Check out the following video for goal highlights and an interview with #9 Phil Marinaccio.

Upcoming Steel games:
Nov. 3 @ Sioux Falls Stampede 7:05 pm

100 Miles for Danny

On October 20, 2012, the Chicago Steel helped support Nick Curley in his "100 Miles For Danny" campaign.

Nick Curley watching warm-ups from the Chicago Steel bench

"I'm really excited that I'm almost done
with my 100 miles." - Nick Curley

Nick Curley, a Glenview Stars hockey player, has been skating laps, backwards and forwards, the entire summer and fall at ice rinks around the Chicagoland area in his goal to raise money for the Danny Did Foundation. The "100 Miles for Danny" campaign is raising money to help fight Sudden Unexpected Death in Epilepsy (SUDEP). 

Although Nick and Danny Stanton never met, their fathers were friends and Nick was impacted by Danny's death through his own parents, Laura and Brian. He saw how deeply saddened they were after finding out of the passing of their friend's son, and having a cousin who also is affected by epilepsy, he wondered whether something could happen to her. Since the cause really hit close to home, Nick wanted do something big to help raise awareness for SUDEP. What better way for him to assist in a great cause while doing his "favorite thing to do" - hockey. 

Having skated 90 miles throughout the last few months, Nick became even closer to his goal of 100. He skated three miles prior to the Steel game, one mile during the first intermission, and one mile post-game with the players of the Chicago Steel. Nick is definitely a little boy who has been inspired to enjoy life and all of the ups and downs that come with it.

Steel TV Feature: 100 Miles For Danny

The Chicago Steel organization would like to thank all fans that came out to the game to support Nick Curley and the Danny Did Foundation.

Nick Curley and his Glenview Stars teammates

For more information or to donate to the Danny Did Foundation, visit dannydid.org.

Here's Your Weekend Recap!

Hello Steel fans!

Check out the latest episode of Steel TV's Weekend Recap. Steel TV host, Larissa, covers the home-and-home series against the Muskegon Lumberjacks (Oct. 19 and 20), and interviewed defenseman, Jaccob Slavin.

Below are a few photos taken during Saturday night's home game. 

(Photos by: Grace Wiley)

#10 Thomas Ebbing

#27 Daniel McNamara

#5 Johnny Wingels

Upcoming Steel Games:
10/26 @ Fargo 7:35 pm
10/27 @ Sioux City 7:05 pm

I Was Told...

When you started playing hockey,

what was the best advice you received?

Joel Benson #3

"The best advice I've received is you get out of it what you put into it. And to always have fun."

Tim Davison #16

"Try your hardest, strive to be the best, and have fun. If you're not having fun, it's not worth playing anymore."

Chris Dodero #25

"Always work your hardest and never give up."

Thomas Ebbing #10

"Never give up. When you work hard good things will happen."

Daniel Fetzer #26

"Play hard, have fun, and trust your skills."

Christian Heil #11

"To always stay positive and always work hard."

Jeff Kubiak #18

"When you're not working, someone else is."

Daniel Kucerovy #12

"Shoot where the goalie is not."

Brian LeBlanc #14

"Hard work beats skill when skill doesn't work hard."

Mackenzie MacEachern #19

"Work hard and good things will happen."

Phil Marinaccio #9

"Have fun but work hard."

Dan McNamara #27

"Always have fun."

Chris Nell #31

"Work hard but most of all have fun."

Christian Neumann #4

"Hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work hard. And always have fun, it is a GAME!"

Charlie O'Connor #21

"When I started playing hockey the best advice I received was to never quit and to always work hard at what you do."

Sam Piazza #6

"Only worry about the things you can control, not about the things you can't."

Ray Pigozzi #23

"Work your hardest. Never give up, always have fun, and enjoy what you're doing."

Patrick Polino #17

"No matter how many people tell you that you can't do something work as hard as you can to prove them wrong."

Alex Roos #28

"If you wanna score goals you have to go to the net."

Alex Sakellaropoulous #1

"Work hard and have fun, but work hard."

Jaccob Slavin #7

"The best advice I have ever received would be to always work hard

no matter what because you never know who is watching."

Ali Thomas #15

"Snipe the tendies, dangle thru bendies."

Joseph Widmar #8

"Have fun and trust yourself."

Johnny Wingels #5

"Don't give up if you can't do something. The only way to get better is to practice."

Steel Sweep USA

This past Friday and Saturday, Team USA's U-17 welcomed the Chicago Steel to Ann Arbor, MI. The Steel came out strong both nights obtaining two wins against Team USA making their record 5-1. Below is a recap of the weekend's games , along with an interview from Coach Scott McConnell.

This coming weekend, the Chicago Steel will play the Muskegon Lumberjacks both Friday and Saturday. On Friday, October 19th, the Muskegon Lumberjacks will welcome the Chicago Steel to the LC Walker Arena in Muskegon, MI. Puck drop is set for 7:15pm (6:15pm Chicago time). Then on Saturday, October 20th, the Chicago Steel will welcome the Muskegon Lumberjacks to the Edge Ice Arena, in Bensenville, IL. Puck drop is set for 7:05pm.

Don't forget Steel fans, on Saturday night, the Chicago Steel will be teaming up with Nick Curley and the Danny Did Foundation, as Nick continues his journey of skating 100 miles for Danny! To learn more about this event visit the Danny Did Foundation or click here: Danny Did 10-20-12

We hope to see you this weekend Steel Fans!!

Broken Sticks

At some point or another every hockey player has to buy new sticks because they either outgrow of the ones that they are using, they break their sticks during a practice or game, or a new and improved hockey stick comes out that they want to try it.

Either way, players and their families are probably able to start a collection of hockey sticks at some point in a player's career. But what do you do with them? To some people the obvious thing would be to throw them out, because the thought is: what are you going to do with a short or broken stick? However, if you think about how much money you are throwing out with one stick you might just decide to keep it and set it aside. Who knows maybe it will come in handy one day.

All of our players have been playing for years, so as you can assume they have their own collections of sticks. Recently, people have become more creative in regards to what they should do with their old hockey sticks.

Here are some ideas on ways to use your old hockey sticks!

You can make BENCHES...





 

   

                                                                 

You can make a TABLE...

Or a HEADBOARD...

Maybe a BOX to keep stuff in...

Or if you are planning a party or like to bake a CUPCAKE STAND might come in handy!



Get creative Steel Fans and don't waste those old hockey sticks! It's starting to get cold outside, this could be the perfect project for a Sunday afternoon! You never know what you might decide to make!

Have a great day everyone!

95 Miles!!

Danny Stanton was born on March 2, 2005. He was the youngest of three children. At the early age of two Danny had his first seizure, which quickly brought him to the Children’s Memorial Hospital in Chicago. That night Danny had many tests done, but there was no answer to the cause of his seizure. A month after his first seizure, Danny had a second seizure. After more tests, the neurologist determined that Danny had childhood seizure disorder. Danny’s parents were later told that he was epileptic. Even with this news, Danny’s day to day life remained the same. He continued to be athletic, engaging, social, affectionate, and inquisitive. After 18 months with no known seizures, Danny started preschool. His family believed that the seizures were over and Danny could finally have a normal life. Four days after his last doctor’s appointment, Danny quietly passed away in his sleep from a seizure.

In January of 2010, Mike and Mariann Stanton found the Danny Did Foundation, which is dedicated to prevent deaths caused by seizures. Found on the foundation’s website, "Our mission focuses on two main goals: (1) advancing awareness of Sudden Unexplained Death in Epilepsy (SUDEP) via enhancing the SUDEP communication model between medical professionals and those afflicted by seizures, and (2) the mainstreaming of seizure detection and seizure prediction devices that may assist in preventing deaths caused by seizures.”

 

 

Nearly three years ago Nick Curley learned about epilepsy. His cousin has it, but with the distance between the families, reality never hit home. Then Nick met Danny. they were the same age and became friends. After learning of Danny's death, and the cause, it left Nick's family changed forever. Nick decided he wanted to do something to help Danny's foundation. This past summer, and continuing this fall, Nick, a Mite Hockey player, is ice skating 100 miles. He is doing five miles at a time, and will be skating 50 miles forward and 50 miles backwards.

The Chicago Steel is extremely proud to announce that they will be helping support Nick Curley in his 100 mile skate for the Danny Did foundation. On October 20th, 2012 when the Steel take on the Muskegon Lumberjacks, Nick Curley, a mite hockey player from the Glenview Stars, will be skating 5 miles to advance his 100 Mile Skate to benefit the Danny Did Foundation, a nonprofit that assists families who are impacted by epilepsy. Nick’s one-mile skate during the first intermission and one-mile post game skate at The Edge Ice Arena will follow three miles skated earlier in the day. At the end of the night Nick will have completed 95 miles in his incredible journey, 64 of those backward.
 

Steel fans we hope that you will come out to support Nick and the Danny Did Foundation on October 20th at 7:05pm. For more information on how to support Nick and the Danny Did foundation, click here: Danny Did 10-20-12.

Have a pucktastic day everyone!!

Let's Recap!

Happy Tuesday Steel Fans! We hope that you are having a great week so far. Today, we thought that we would do a quick recap of Friday and Saturday's games.

 

Following Friday's game, we had another autograph signing with Johnny Wingels #5, Sam Piazza #6, and Jaccob Slavin #7. Kids and adults were excited to meet the players and get their Steel gear signed...  

or maybe if you were lucky enough to be a Pizza Toss winner, you might have gotten your pizza box signed! Can you find the pizza box in the pictures below?



By the end of the night, there was not an unhappy fan in the building, and a lot of the little fans were excited to show off some of their autographed items!

Thanks to all our fans who came out to support us this past weekend! We hope you enjoyed the games and the autograph signing as much as we did! Our next home game will be on October 20th at 7:05pm. We hope to see you there! Have a great day everyone!!

3 Things

Imagine yourself stranded on an island.

What are your three essential items?

Joel Benson #3

"My phone, a fishing pole, and music"

Tim Davison #16

"Food, water, and a paddle boat"

Chris Dodero #25

"My hockey stick, phone, and food"

Thomas Ebbing #10

"Family and friends, food, and water"

Daniel Fetzer #26

"Music, friends, and a knife"

Christian Heil #11

"Phil Marinaccio, a BBQ, and some tunes"

Jeff Kubiak #18

"My cell phone, water, and a pillow"

Daniel Kucerovy #12

"My i-Pod, cell phone, and hockey stick"

Brian LeBlanc #14

"A knife, a lighter, and Bear Gryls"

Mackenzie MacEachern #19

"Family, friends, and food"

Phil Marinaccio #9

"Dan DeSalvo, Christian Heil, and Nicki Minaj"

Dan McNamara #27
"Food, water, and a boat"


Chris Nell #31
"Food, a fire starter, and toilet paper"

Christian Neumann #4

"A water purifier, a lighter, and fishing equipment"

Charlie O'Connor #21

"A plane, matches, and my dog"

Sam Piazza #6

"A phone, friends, and food"

Ray Pigozzi #23

"A fishing pole, a water purifier, and a boat so I could leave"

Patrick Polino #17

"A boat, gas, and food"

Alex Roos #28

"Food, family and friends, and water"

Alex Sakellaropoulous #1

"My family, friends, and an unlimited supply of food"

Jaccob Slavin #7

"My family, food, and water"

Ali Thomas #15

"Music, friends, and Italian food"

Joseph Widmar #8

"Food, a computer, my dog"

Johnny Wingels #5

"My i-Phone, my dog, and golf clubs"

Lose a Bet and Your Nails May Be Painted

Think of how hard it would be to be away from home for over half a year. For some junior hockey players, this is what they experience when they are in season.  Steel players who are not from the Chicagoland area, stay with billet families. These families take them in for the entire season and welcome them as part of their family.

We were able to sit down with Tim Davison and ask him about his host family as well as get some answers to why his nails were painted when he showed up to the rink yesterday.

Tim is living with the Faulkner family, where there are three little kids, Blake, Avery, and Drew. Blake and Drew both play hockey, and Avery is active in gymnastics. Before meeting the family, Davison thought that it might be a little weird to be living with another family, however, his thoughts quickly changed when he arrived. "Right when I first got there I met Jamie, the mom, who made me feel right at home,” Davison said.

After leaving his life in DePere, Wisc., Davison's typical day has changed quite a bit.

"I usually don’t see them in the morning,” he said. “I get home around 4 p.m. and they are usually out and about with hockey and gymnastics. About 5 or 5:30 p.m. they come home, and Jaccob and I usually play hockey with the boys. I sometimes help the kids with their homework or sometimes we will shoot pucks with the older kid Blake. Then we have dinner with the family and then the kids go to bed."

Now as many of you know, especially if you have children or grew up with siblings, siblings tend to pick on each other and also make bets. When the boys live with billet families, they consider the kids to be like their siblings as well.

Well, when Davison came into the Steel office Wednesday afternoon and showed off his beautiful painted finger nails and toe nails, the question on everyone's mind was what happened? We came to find out he lost a bet to his billet sister, Avery.

"We made a bet on who could hold a hand stand the longest,” he said. “I was able to do it for about five seconds and she did hers for a solid minute. If I won, I didn’t have to help her memorize her bible verse for the day. As you can guess, Avery won, and I got my nails painted."

Tim's finger nails were rainbow colors, and his toes were silver. Unfortunately, when we went to take a picture this morning, he had already removed the polish. However, below is an image of what they did look like.

Even though Davison lost his bet, he says that the best thing about living with the Faulkner family is that they make him feel at home.

Since we are less than a month into the 2012-13 season, we're sure that we will see or hear more exciting stories from our billet families and players. Stay tuned to see what other bets are made during the season!

Have a pucktastic day everyone!

The Boys Are On Fire!!

Hi Steel fans! As promised yesterday, here is a video recap of the weekend games, where the Steel came away with a 2-0 victory. Furthermore, Larissa was able to sit down with Coach RJ Enga and get his views on the Saturday game, and how the weekend went overall.

Be sure to make your calendars for this weekend's games and events! On Friday, October 5th, the Chicago Steel will welcome the Muskegon Lumberjacks. Game time will be 7:30pm. Following this game, fans will get a chance to meet some of the Steel players, and get autographs as well. Then on Saturday, October 6th, the Chicago Steel will play one of their big rival games against the Green Bay Gamblers. Game time is 7:05pm. Make sure to not miss out on all the action!

Remember you can order tickets early by calling (630-) 594-1161 or order online at http://chicagosteelhockeyteam.com/tickets.

 

We hope to see you at the rink this weekend Steel fans!!

A Weekend For The Books

Happy Monday Steel Fans! We hope you had a great weekend and were able to attend a game. This past weekend the Steel went 2-0 winning against the Indiana Ice and the Tri-City Storm. Tomorrow we will have a video recap of both games, along with some of the game footage.

However, for today, we thought we would share the Friday's post-game interview from Coach Kelly Gee, Joel Benson, and Alex Sakellaropoulo, all giving their feedback on the opening game.

After both of the games this weekend, fans were able to interact with some of the players. On Friday, fans were able to meet and get autographs from Alex Sakellaropoulos, Joel Benson, and Christian Neumann.

Fans were lined up down the concourse, just to have a quick meet and greet with some of their favorite players.

 The guys were willing to sign anything: shirts, pucks, pictures, you name it, they'd sign it.

On Saturday, after the game, fans were able to go on the ice and skate with all of the players for a full 25 minutes. Talk about ending a great game with a bang! 

Some of the kids and parents didn't have skates, but did we see that as a problem? Nope! Fans were able to rent skates at the rink for only $1.

Players were signing autographs, skating around with the fans, and if you were lucky enough to have brought a camera,  you could have even gotten your picture taken with them.

To be able to come away opening weekend with a 2-0 start, and have fun hanging out with the fans, we'd say it was a perfect weekend.