Steve Cash was Always ‘Money’ in Net

Steve Cash goes by the nickname “Money.” But it was never a pressure point for him. In fact, he rather likes it.

To him, it’s all about the confidence his teammates and many others had for him over his 16 years as the goaltender on the U.S. National Sled Hockey Team.

Over his career, he was money. Starting at 16 years old in 2005, Cash went on to appear in 150 games and walked away with a 1.22 goals-against average and a .898 save percentage.

That’s in part why he’s part of the Class of 2025 for the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee Hall of Fame, which was announced in early May. Cash will officially be inducted in July in Colorado Springs, Colorado. 

While Cash is honored by the selection, it reminds him more about the USOPC’s impact on him and the U.S. sled hockey program.

“They do some great things for athletes to achieve their dreams, and they did the same thing when I got started,” said Cash, who hails from the St. Louis suburb of Overland, Missouri. “Now they are offering me a spot in their Hall of Fame, it’s amazing. USOPC was there for me and now they are honoring me.”

Cash is also a member of the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame, and his accomplishments bear out those twin honors. As a teenager, he helped Team USA win a bronze medal at the 2006 Paralympic Games in Torino, Italy — but he was just getting started.

Cash anchored the U.S. to three straight Paralympic gold medals and didn’t allow a single goal during the 2010 Games in Vancouver. That performance earned him Best Male Athlete with a Disability at the 2010 ESPYs.

But there’s more. Cash played in eight World Para Ice Hockey Championships, winning gold five times and adding a pair of silver medals and one bronze.

He’s won plenty of hardware, but the memories of those games stick out the most to Cash. 

In the gold-medal game in Vancouver in 2010, the U.S. played Japan. The Japanese captain took a penalty shot, and what Cash did was one of his defining moments in sled hockey.

“In that moment, he came down and once he broke the blue line, he was really shifty, shifting left and right, trying to feel me out,” Cash recalled. “He got to the top of the circles and I came out and challenged him. As soon as he saw me come out, he thought he might catch me with my hands down.”

He didn’t.

“I clutched that puck like it was a newborn child,” Cash said with a chuckle.

With the 2025 World Para Hockey Championship coming up May 24-31 in Buffalo, New York, it’s given Cash a chance to reminisce about the last time he was there, in 2015, when the U.S. went undefeated in the tournament. 

In the gold-medal game, he shut out Canada, which was, as always, a chippy contest. 

“I remember one of the plays, one of the scariest moments of my life,” he said. “There was loose puck maybe at the top of the circles and there was a Canadian player coming.

“Lo and behold, he beats me to it, but he missed the net.”

This year, it’s going to be a bit odd watching rather than playing at worlds, but Cash has a bit of humor about that as well.

“It’s always really weird watching the games online,” he said. “For 15, 16 years, it was my family asking me how to watch the games. Now I’m the one looking for the streams.”

Fans can watch the United States march for gold at the 2025 World Para Hockey Championship on USAHockeyTV. 

All joking aside, Cash has high hopes for his former teammates as they take the ice against a talented field, which includes Czechia, Slovakia and Norway in the U.S.’s Group B, with Canada, China, Republic of Korea and Germany in Group A.

“I would say basically who I know will be there, the games will be fast,” he said. “The [U.S.] will come out and they [are] going to compete hard and compete early.”

Not surprisingly, Cash is still close with his former teammates, especially goalie Jen Lee, who was roommates with Cash during tournaments over the 10 years they played together. 

For now, Cash isn’t involved with Team USA, but that may change.

“I’ve had the invitation to come to camp and be part of the experience,” he said, “That’s something I do want to do.”

You can imagine him heading onto the ice for a practice and his former teammates yelling, “Money!”

“It was a term of endearment, obviously,” he said. “The people who called me that, it shows they believed in me.”

Story from Red Line Editorial, Inc.

Source: usahockey.com