Sheffield Steelers coach Aaron Fox hails 'character win' No 42 as Cardiff Devils are denied

But, with the title already won by Aaron Fox’s team, they couldn’t rain on the Steelers’ parade in their last home game of the 2023-24 regular season.

The Steelers could have won their first league championship in eight years in Cardiff just over 10 days ago, but came up against a Devils team determined to ensure there would be no party in their rink as they ran out deserved 4-0 winners.

Ever since the Steelers won The Challenge Cup back on March 13 there has been a party atmosphere surrounding the Utilita Arena.

And it continued on Saturday night as the Steelers closed out their home programme for the regular season by posting a deserved 4-0 win over Pete Russell’s team.

Afterwards, Russell was frustrated with the level of performance from his team, a stark contrast to Fox, who said his team’s 42nd win of the year - from 50 games - was another example of their remarkable character, a trait that has seen them dominate the entire season so far.

After a goalless first period, the Steelers didn’t take long to get going in the second when Daniel Ciampini broke the deadlock just 18 seconds in.

Josh Nicholls doubled the lead just over six minutes later, while back-up netminder Anthony Morrone stonewalled the Devils with any chances they were able to muster at the other end.

A power play marker from captain Robert Dowd strengthened the Steelers’ grip on proceedings, while Mark Simpson added a short-handed strike in the 49th minute to complete a deserved win.

“It couldn’t have gone any better,” said Steelers’ head coach, Fox. “It would have been very easy for this group to mail it in and just kind of go through the motions, so this shows what kind of character is in this dressing room, the kind that we’ve talked about all year.

“Our group just oozes character and what we’ve done all year is play for each other and that group of guys battled for Tony (Morrone) tonight.

“It’s been a long time since he was in the line-up and they didn’t want to leave him hanging tonight, didn’t want to leave a man behind and that says a lot about how close-knit that group is and what each other means to them.”