One year ago today Idaho Steelheads coach Hardy Sauter was fired. The Steelheads season was finished. They had just been eliminated in the semi-final round of the ECHL playoffs for the second year in a row. Although they did advance out of the first round as a number seven seed, there were no expectations that they could go much further. During the season the team had some lengthy losing streaks including streaks of six and ten games. Sauter posted a mediocre record of  63-59-22 in two seasons as head coach.

In June of 2012 the franchise hired Brad Ralph, a young coach from the Augusta (Georgia) Riverhawks of the Southern Professional Hockey League.  Ralph literally cleaned house hanging on to just a few players from the previous team. He even cut the team's all-time leading scorer Marty Flichel who had played eight seasons with the franchise.  The moves paid off in the regular season as the Steelheads won 45 games, scoring more goals than any ECHL team.

Fast forward to last Wednesday after game three of the Western Conference semifinal series. The Steelheads lost at home to Ontario to fall behind two games to one. Coach Ralph called out a number of players for not producing. They had scored just one goal in the previous two games. After the public chastising, the Steelheads went on to score 13 goals over the next three games and win the series.

The Steelheads are one series win away from the Kelly Cup Finals. The team has lost back-to-back games only one time since March, and they just lit up one of the best goaltenders in the ECHL. The Western Conference Finals start Friday night at CenturyLink Arena with the Steelheads owning the home ice advantage against Stockton.  It is the point of the season that if a team can win four out of every seven games they will become the Kelly Cup Champions. Ralph seems to be pushing the right buttons to get them there. At least there are some expectations, unlike a year ago today.