Sheffield Steelers in Elite League seventh heaven after edging out Glasgow Clan

Of course there is still a long way to go in the regular season but, from their current position and if they stay lucky in the injury department, it would take a lot to bet against the Steelers at the moment.

A comfortable 5-2 win at home against Manchester Storm on Saturday preceded a much more gritty affair 24 hours later when Glasgow Clan came to South Yorkshire, the hosts edging out their Scottish rivals by the same 3-2 scoreline they concocted at the same venue back on January 26, a victory which started an unbeaten run for the Steelers which stretched to seven games on Sunday night.

The Steelers were made to do it the hard way, a goalless first period preceding a second period in which the deadlock was broken by Justin Hodgman at 24.13.

The Clan levelled through Nolan LaPorte’s powerplay strike just after the halfway mark, although the Steelers got themselves ahead again through defenceman Sam Jones with just 75 seconds remaining in the period.

Braylon Shmyr dragged the visitors level for a second time at 44.24, but they had no further answer after Marc-Olivier Vallerand’s strike at 54:42 was enough to guarantee both points.

Hodgman and Vallerand were on target early on in the previous evening’s clash with Manchester, both scoring inside the first five minutes to give the Steelers a 2-1 lead, their goals sandwiching a third-minute reply from Jared Vanwormer.

Tommaso Traversa made it 3-1 before the period was done, the Steelers sealing the deal before 40 minutes were up through further efforts through Vojtěch Polák and Kevin Schulze, a 39th-minute power play strike from Dallas Ehrhardt proving nothing more than a consolation.