Sheffield Steeldogs coach Aaron Fox on the twists and turns still to come in Elite League title race

A 5-2 midweek win at Guildford Flames saw leaders Belfast Giants extend their lead over second-placed Cardiff Devils to three points, with the Steelers four points further back.

But with 24 regular season games remaining - four of them against Cardiff, who also play Belfast the same number of times - Fox is confident there is plenty of scope for more twists and turns, including the likelihood of arch-rivals Nottingham Panthers also joining the title-chasing party.

“There’s a lot of hockey to be played still and this thing is far from over,” said Fox, ahead of a weekend that brings Manchester Storm to the Utilita Arena tonight before a road trip to Guildford Flames tomorrow.

“We play Cardiff four times, Cardiff play Belfast four times, Nottingham are right up there too, right now. There are 24 games left, we’ve got a game in hand on Belfast, who also have to come to ours, still.”

The Steelers saw an eight-game winning streak ended by a 5-3 defeat in Belfast last Saturday, a run which followed one of two four-game losing streaks Fox’s team have uncharacteristically suffered in 2024-25 - at least when compared to their 2023-24 grand slam campaign.

Fox is hoping last week’s reverse can be nipped in the bud at the first time of asking against play-off chasing Storm.

“We’ve had a pretty good run of form here and if there is one thing we’ve struggled with this year it’s forgetting those losses and getting back on track quickly,” said Fox, who this weekend sets a new record for games in charge by a Steelers coach, the American being one game behind Alex Dampier’s record of 337.

“We’ve had a couple of losing runs already this eason and we’ve got to make sure we close the door on that loss in Belfast and start another winning run straight away.”

Manchester arrive in South Yorkshire three points out from the eighth and final play-off spot currently occupied by Dundee Stars, but with three games in hand on their Scottish rivals.

Having been edged out by one-goal in recent weeks by both Belfast and Cardiff, Fox anticipates a tough test on home ice.

“When you watch their games back here recently, they’ve actually played some pretty good hockey,” added Fox. “I watched that Belfast game, they went down 3-0 early, got back to within one and they only gave up 16 shots in that game and played really well

“And I felt they outplayed Cardiff two weeks ago when I watched that game, which they also lost 3-2.

“So they have had one-goal defeats against the top two teams and they always play well against us, so I know it won’t be an easy night.

“We have to make sure we come ready to play and start collecting points again.”

With an extra day to recover from their last outing in Belfast, Fox said he was expecting both forward Daniel Leavens and defenceman Veeti Vainio to have recovered from injury and be back in contention for the weekend.