Sheffield Steelers 4 Manchester Storm 2: Steelers quickly back to winning ways to stay in EIHL title hunt

Last season, the Steelers didn’t suffer back-to-back losses all year on their way to winning the Elite League title. They lost just nine games in all.

This time around, they have already lost 10 games, including two four-game losing streaks which has resulted in them being third in the standings and chasing the top two of Belfast Giants and Cardiff Devils.

In the lead up to Saturday’s 4-2 win at home over Manchester Storm, Fox spoke of how he was keen for his team to respond positively to the previous weekend’s 5-3 loss at Belfast, a result which had snapped an eight-game winning streak.

And while he didn’t think his team were firing on all cylinders, he was pleased they were able to get the “job done” ahead of Sunday night’s trip to Guildford Flames.

“It was good enough, I liked parts of our game, it probably wasn’t a complete 60, a little bit of a clunky finish there, but we saw it out well and Greener made a couple of big saves there when we needed him to in the third,” said Fox, who on Sunday will set a new record of games in charge by a Steelers coach when he passes Alex Dampier’s 337.

“One of our biggest weaknesses this season is how we’ve responded after losses, there’s been a couple of longer losing streaks than you’d like in this league which is probably why we are where we are at, looking at a couple of teams in front of us,

“There were some small details in decisions that I think we can be better at but mistakes are going to be made in this business and we got the job done.

“We’ve got game 50 of the season on Sunday in Guildford, so that’s a lot of hockey that has been played right now but we’re in a spot where we can continue to push.”

Marc-Olivier Vallerand got the Steelers off to a perfect start with a close-range finish after just 63 seconds and although the Storm levelled through Loren Ulett at 11.27, the next shift saw the Steelers get ahead again when Maxim Gold finished off from a Daniel Leavens pass on a breakaway.

Two goals in less than a minute early in the second proved decisive, though, Mikko Juusola finishing firmly from Brandon Whistle’s precision feed at 22.32 before Kevin Tansey fired through traffic 46 seconds later.

Grant Hebert produced a smart finish on the power play in the 36th minute, but the Steelers held out.