AARON FOX admitted the agony of missing out on the Elite League title on the final day of the regular season is going to “sting” - but said he and his team would have to move on quickly from the disappointment.

Going into the day just one point off leaders Belfast Giants, the Steelers ended up falling just short of retaining their regular season crown when losing out 4-3 at Coventry Blaze on Sunday evening.

At the same time Belfast came from behind to win 4-3 in overtime at Nottingham Panthers to regain the crown they won in 2023 by three points.

The Steelers had played near-perfect hockey over the last 10 games or so, but must now rouse themselves for the play-offs which see them take on Glasgow Clan this weekend in the quarter-finals.

“From our perspective, we set our sights quite high so for us to fall just short like this is obviously going to be disappointing,” head coach Fox told BBC Sheffield. “And it’s something that we’re going to have to move on from real quickly here with a tough match-up against Glasgow in a few days.

“It’s going to sting for a little while, there’s no doubt about it because everybody in our room cares and you could see by how hard everybody has worked.”

The Steelers had to haul themselves back into the game at Coventry having fallen 2-0 behind inside four minutes through goals from Brady Pouteau and Nick Seitz.

The deficit was halved almost immediately at 3.56 when Sam Tremblay converted a pass from Daniel Ciampini from close range.

MOVING ON: Sheffield Steelers' head coach Aaron Fox will rally his players to launch a defeance of their play-off crown this weekend. Picture: Dean Woolley/Steelers Media.

The game was all-square just under five minutes later when Mitchell Balmas beat Mat Robson in the Blaze goal.

The Steelers then forged ahead in the 27th minute through Ciampini, only for the Blaze to reply quickly themselves through Terrance Amorosa at 28.20.

That is how it remained until 56.39 when the Steelers’ hopes suffered a significant blow.

The Blaze won a face-off in the Steelers zone, the puck breaking kindly for Chase Gresock who fired through traffic and past an unsighted Matt Greenfield to make it 4-3.

It means the Giants will go forward to contest next season’s Champions Hockey League while the Steelers must try and salvage their campaign by retaining the play-off trophy they won to complete the treble at the end of the 2023-24 season.

Sheffield Steelers: Elite League title 'sting' needs to ease quickly in order to stage play-off title defence