Sheffield Steelers 4 Milton Keynes Lightning 3: Armstrong's late show completes Steelers fightback

DIFFERENCE MAKER: John Armstrong scored two third period goals to seal a win for Sheffield Steelers against Milton Keynes. Picture: Dean Woolley.

The five-time league champions went into the final 20 minutes at Ice Sheffield 3-2 down after Lightning had showed themselves capable of dealing with life at the higher level under GB head coach Pete Russell after making the step up in the summer from the now defunct English Premier League with Guildford Flames.

But where the Steelers’ cruised past the Flames in Surrey 10 days ago with a 7-1 road win, Wednesday night in South Yorkshire against the Lightning proved far more difficult.

It will surely be impossible to beat Levi Nelson in terms of timing for a game-winning goal after he sealed a 6-5 Challenge Cup win for the Steelers against Nottingham Panthers earlier this month with just one second of regulation time remaining.

LEVEL PEGGING: Sheffield Steelers' MAtt Marquardt fores the puck home to make it 2-2 against Milton Keynes on Wednesday night at Ice Sheffield. Picture: Dean Woolley.

But Armstrong went close on Wednesday night when he clinched the points with just 18 seconds remaining on the clock.

His eighth goal of the season in as many games came 12 minutes after he had pulled the home side level. The Steelers found themselves trailing thanks to Kevin King’s 21st-minute strike had put Lightning ahead.

That came after an even first 20 minutes was first punctuated by Colton Fretter giving the home side the lead after just over five minutes, although the Steelers soon found themselves on the back foot when Francis Verreault-Paul and Paul Phillips scored within 60 seconds of each other to put Lightning ahead.

The Steelers restored parity through summer signing Matt Marquardt at 10.38 when he converted on the powerplay following good work by Mark Matheson and Fretter.

And, after a rare blank weekend in which they lost twice to title rivals Belfast Giants while scoring only one goal, Armstrong stepped up to be the difference maker with his late powerplay strike.