Belfast Giants v Sheffield Steelers: Consistency needed to fuel Steelers' bid to close gap on Elite League rivals

But with each passing week there is less and less wiggle room for the Steelers as they attempt to claw back points on the three teams above them.

Second-placed Belfast are the league’s form team, having lost just one of their last 11 league games, while Nottingham Panthers - currently sitting third - are also on a roll, having lost just two of their last 10.

By contrast, the Steelers - along with current leaders the Cardiff Devils - are finding such consistency a touch more elusive.

The Devils slipped to defeat at Guildford Flames on New Year’s Day, their fifth reverse in nine games. On the same day, however, the Steelers continued to show further signs of recovery, a 4-2 triumph at Manchester Storm giving them their third straight win.

The Steelers have lost nine games already this season, the same number they lost in the entire 2023-24 EIHL league campaign which saw them canter to the regular season crown by 14 points, their second trophy lift in a grand slam year.

Like Belfast, who won the grand slam before them in 2022-23, the Steelers have found replicating that domination of the league tough in the following season.

It is no coincidence that both teams had to deal with the extra demands placed on them from the Champions Hockey League campaign that follows a league championship.

For Steelers’ head coach Aaron Fox, there have been aspects of his team’s performances over the festive period to admire, even in the 4-2 Boxing Day defeat at home to the Panthers.

But it is the difficulty his players have found in producing enough 60-minute performances that has been the chief source of frustration for Fox - something he knows has to change if the Steelers are to stand any chance of recording back-to-back league title wins.

“We haven’t strung together a ton of outstanding 60s throughout the year and that leaves you looking for a little more consistency and a little bit more in terms of solid performances,” said Fox.

“In Manchester, we came out, got off to a 3-0 lead and we could have easily scored in the second to make it 4-0.

“But we took our foot off the gas and we let them back into that hockey game. That’s not something you can do because it could have cost us and we were fortunate that it didn’t.

“But if we’re going to take ourselves seriously down the back-end of this year, there has to be more consistency with our group, from start to finish.”

The Steelers’ previous visit to the SSE Arena on December 15 did not go well, with Fox left to rue a poor first period which gave the Giants a two-goal advantage they never let go of on their way to a convincing 3-0 victory.

But the Steelers lead the head-to-head series 2-1 having opened their league programme back in September with a 3-2 shoot-out win at the Utilita Arena as well as a more convincing 5-2 victory at the same venue in mid-November.

On whether their second of three visits this season to Northern Ireland is in the must-win category, Fox replied: “Every time you play one of these teams that is at the top, you want to feel like it is very important.

“At the end of the day, these are called four-point games, so if you’re going to make a run here and not win these games, that just means you need to be that much more perfect against everyone else.

“For us, this is our fourth time against Belfast and we’re 2 and 1 against them on the year which is good.

“A win closes the gap and puts us within striking distance which is how we’ve got to look at things right now. Every game is equally as important as the next.

“We were there a few weeks ago and they punched us in the mouth and we couldn’t recover from it. So we know we need to start on time and we are aware they are going to be aggressive and physical at the start.

“We’ve got to be able to match that this time, weather that initial storm and then dig in and focus on our game.”