Sheffield Steelers coach Aaron Fox remains convinced road to Elite League title remains open

Ahead of Saturday night’s trip to the National Ice Centre to take on the Nottingham Panthers, the Steelers have taken just one point from their last three games, leaving them fourth in the standings, seven points off leaders Belfast Giants.

But with two encounters still to come against the Giants and having a game in hand, Steelers’ head coach Fox is convinced his team still have an opportunity to lift a first regular season crown since 2016.

In between Belfast and the Steelers are sat Guildford Flames, in second, and Cardiff Devils.

The Steelers are two points off Cardiff but with a game in hand and two games to come against their Welsh rivals, as they do against Guildford, who have a three-point advantage.

The Steelers’ still just about hold their title ambitions in their own hands. Just. Any slip-ups this weekend against either the Panthers or on home ice against Manchester Storm on Sunday, could prove fatal.

“It’s a case of having our backs against the wall,” admitted Fox. “There’s a path for us, still, which has been the message this week. We’ve created a difficult road for ourselves but there is still a pathway there for us to get hot and make a run here.

"But that comes with playing a certain way every single night and making sure we really do have that win-the-next-one mentality every night.

"We all set high expectations, every single conversation I have with guys coming in knew what our goals and aspirations are.

"But we’ve had a good week, we’ve hit the reset button a little bit. We were on the ice Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and we did it a little bit differently this week to try and mix things up and we’ve had a good vibe, actually.

“Guys bought in and worked hard and I’m hoping we get a response this weekend.”

Taking on the Nottingham Panthers at the National Ice Centre could provide the spark that sees Fox’s team breathe new life into their title challenge.

Fox has a good record at the venue as a coach, having won 10 of 15 games there in his three full seasons in charge, including three out of four visits in league and cup in this campaign.

The Steelers’ chief said Friday was the first day he had had a full roster training on the ice, with the sickness bug that had hit the team having affected around 10 players at various times over the past couple of weeks.

Brandon Whistle is also back in the line-up having recovered from a lower-body injury and is thrown in to centre a line comprising Danny Kristo and Martin Latal.

"There are a couple of guys who only had one skate or two skates because of the sickness bug that’s been going through the camp. It has hit us real hard – with nine,10 guys affected overall who have missed multiple games because of it.

“But we had everyone on the ice on Friday which was good so, hopefully we’re getting healthy at the right time and we can get some energy from that, too with guys starting to feel a bit better.

“Brandon skated Wednesday, Thursday and Friday and he’ll be back in the line-up and I’m putting him in a premium role too, with Latal and Danny Kristo and I think he will thrive on that.”