Steel Company: The Chicago Steel

The Chicago Steel

The Chicago Steel is a Tier 1 junior ice hockey team formed in 2000. It plays all of its home games at the Edge Ice Arena, located in Bensenville, Illinois. The Steel play in the Eastern Division of the United States Hockey League. The current GM and Head Coach of the Steel is Scott McConnell. McConnell was promoted from assistant coach to his current role on the morning of Thursday, February 24, 2011, when Jon Waibel was relieved of his duties as head coach and GM, having led the injury-plagued team to a 9-27-7 record to that point. Before the 10/11 season, Waibel had spent five seasons as the assistant coach under former NHL'er Steve Poapst, who left late in the off-season to take a job with the AHL's Rockford IceHogs. McConnell was named full-time head coach and GM on May 16, 2011 - before this, he'd been the interim head coach and GM.

The Fargo-Moorhead Ice Sharks moved to Chicago, Illinois and became the Steel in 2000. For the most part, the team hovered around the .500 mark, until 2003-04. Under the direction of rookie Head Coach Wil Nichol, the Steel won their first-ever East Division title, besting the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders by one point.

The feat was remarkable considering the Steel didn’t have a scorer or a goaltender ranked among the league leaders. Danny Charleston led the team in scoring and Curt Hammer award winner Topher Scott also provided clutch goals. Shane Connolly and Adam D’Alba split the goaltending duties and Nichol claimed league coach of the year honors.

The division title didn’t bring post-season success, however, as the Steel fell to eventual Clark Cup champion Waterloo Black Hawks in a tight, five-game, first-round series.