Sheffield Steelers hit back to keep noses in front in Elite League title race

Despite remaining top, Aaron Fox’s team had allowed Cardiff Devils and Nottingham Panthers to close the gap in the past fortnight, but bounced back impressively to silence the doubters.

Their advantage remains just the one point over a Cardiff team who still have three games in hand, although the two still have to meet twice more before the end of the regular season.

The Steelers ended their losing run at the best possible venue on Saturday night, putting third-placed Nottingham to the sword 6-2 and gaining swift revenge for the 5-1 defeat suffered at the hands of the Panthers on home ice two weeks previously.

Michael Davies opened the scoring in the seventh minute although the game was effectively won in the second period through further strikes from Marc-Olivier Vallerand, Anthony DeLuca and Lucas Sandstrom.

Brendan Connolly and Sandstrom added further gloss in the final 20 minutes.

Just under 24 hours later, the Steelers probably ended Belfast Giants’ title defence for good when emerging comfortable 4-1 winners at FlyDSA Arena.

David Goodwin gave the visitors a sixth-minute lead, but a DeLuca double and third-period strikes from Ben O’Connor and Brendan Connolly sealed the win.

“It was a huge weekend for us, obviously, we knew that our game needed to change and we needed to button up some things and be ready to compete for a full 60 and I loved the way that the guys battled,” said Steelers’ head coach Aaron Fox.

“You try to close the door on things, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t still disappointed at how last weekend went for us because those are two games if you really want it down the stretch you need those points.

“But it was a huge game yesterday at Nottingham after losing four in a row, it would have been very easy for us to find a way to lose that hockey game but the boys were ready to compet and battle and I thought we played like men for two nights in a row and found a way to get four points.”