Sheffield Steelers coach Aaron Fox on captain Robert Dowd's injury, play-off preparations and an 'unbelievable' Elite League season so far

The Steelers will take on Fife Flyers in the quarter-finals following a dramatic final night of the regular season on Sunday.

The Flyers had already clinched their place in the post-season with Saturday’s 6-2 road win at Dundee Stars, but dropped to eighth in the final standings after their Scottish rivals gained revenge with a 4-1 win on Sunday night and Coventry Blaze clinching their spot after a four-point weekend.

Nottingham Panthers and Glasgow Clan were the two teams to miss out, Cardiff Devils’ 8-5 win at Glasgow on Sunday ensuring that the Steelers’ championship-winning margin was 14 points.

Dowd, who has also lifted the Challenge Cup in his first season wearing the ‘C’, played in the 4-3 overtime win at Belfast Giants on Friday night but picked up a knock forcing him to sit out Saturday’s season-closing 4-1 loss in the second game at the SSE Arena.

Marc-Olivier Vallerand is also understood to be doubtful but, again, Fox is hopeful of his return for Friday’s home leg at Ice Sheffield (face-off 7pm).

“I hope so,” said Fox when asked about Dowd’s availability for Friday. “It’s hard to know how it’s going to react until he’s put a glove on it and until he can start shooting and passing pucks.

“But he’s also a guy that I’m not overly-worried about and if he can only have one full skate on Thursday, we’ll make that work with Dowdy, too. That will be a medical decision and we’ll go from there.”

Since winning the regular season championship, Fox has mixed and matched his lines in the subsequent games and was pleased with how it went in readiness for the post-season and his team’s bid to secure a memorable treble.

“We mixed some guys in, some guys were mentally fatigued and some guys really stepped up their play I feel,” added Fox. “Scotty Allen has been unbelievable this last couple of weeks, he keeps playing at a very high level which is great to see and he and Simmer (Mark Simpson) have been really, really good together.

“I like the way our group’s rolling when we’re fully healthy and, hopefully, there’s nothing too serious for Vally (Marc-Olivier Vallerand) and Dowdy so we get them back for the weekend.”

After Friday night’s first leg, the Steelers get a day off before concluding their tie against the Flyers at Fife Ice Arena on Sunday (5.15pm).

The Steelers ruled in the head-to-head series against the Flyers during the regular season, winning five of the six games, their only loss coming in Kirkcaldy on January 20.

On the conclusion of a memorable title-winning campaign, Fox added: “It’s been unbelievable.

“It’s been a long and grinding season and it was nice to go to Belfast with no agenda other than to try to get through it healthy and compete at a high level which I thought we did.

“But what a year, what a fun year, we’ve got two weeks left here and let’s hope we can finish it the right way.”