Sheffield Steelers coach Aaron Fox salutes Champions Hockey League 'buy-in' from players ahead of Sparta Prague test

The Steelers followed up an impressive performance in a 4-3 defeat at Switzerland’s Fribourg-Gotteron on Thursday by defeating Växjö 3-2 less than 48 hours later.

They continue their CHL campaign this Friday at home to Sparta Prague, before welcoming Swedish Hockey League champions Skellefteå AIK to the Utilita Arena on Sunday.

“To go in there to face a team that is as good as it is and to match them up and down the ice, which I felt we did, is pretty special,” said Fox.

“(I told the players afterwards) about how high we’ve set the bar here now for ourselves.

“It’s not going to get any easier with Sparta Prague and another Swedish powerhouse in Skellefteå coming into town next week.

“So I think that win is good for the confidence of the group and shows the buy-in from everybody on our team.

“When you’re connected and can play as well as we did, you are going to give yourselves a chance – even when you are playing against teams that - on paper -you may be out-matched against.”

Fox was pleased with the effort of each and everyone of his players at Lakers’ Vida Arena on Saturday afternoon – sealed by an overtime strike by Marc-Olivier Vallerand – but reserved special praise for defensive lynchpin, Kevin Tansey.

"He was in beast mode,” beamed Fox. “He doesn’t allow any other guys to not match that because he just goes out there and does it and the other guys on the bench are like ‘okay’.

"And so he’s setting the bar that high and you need guys like that on your team who, you know, guys are going to look up to.

"And, also, he’s going to come off the bench and if he sees someone get out of a shot lane or make a soft play, he can be the guy to say it’s not acceptable

“Buy-in is a huge word in the hockey culture and we’ve had that here these last two games which is great to see.”