Sheffield Steelers enjoying positive vibes as they look to rein in Belfast Giants
SHEFFIELD STEELERS’ head coach Aaron Fox is hoping his players will feel the benefit of a “normal” week when they return to action looking to close the gap on Elite League leaders Belfast Giants.
The Steelers sit second in the regular season standings, four points adrift of the Giants and having played a game more.
The first of their 10 remaining games sees the Steelers make the short trip to Nottingham Panthers today, the East Midlands club themselves looking to rein in Belfast as they sit third, just one point off the Steelers.
Both teams have failed to take advantage of recent slips by Belfast, the Steelers hammered 6-0 at home by Coventry Blaze last week, while the Panthers were downed 4-2 at home by Glasgow Clan on Wednesday.
Having bounced back from the loss to Coventry with a 10-4 thumping on the road of Dundee Stars, Fox says his players head down the M1 in good spirits and somewhat refreshed without having played a midweek game for the first time in almost a month.
“We’ve had a really positive week,” said Fox. “The guys worked hard all week long, the intensity was up, we competed and battled on Wednesday and we had played in midweek for four straight weeks.
“We hadn’t had a real full week of practice in a really long time, so it was important for us to have a good week.”
Fox admits to being left frustrated with his team’s inability to make further inroads into Belfast’s lead at the top.
“We’ve maybe not taken advantage of some of the opportunities that we’ve had had here in the past couple of weeks to close the gap up even more with Belfast losing a couple of games,” he added.
“But the reality is, that is sport but I felt like we had a good bounce back in Dundee and we know going down to Nottingham that building will be full and they are also playing for a chance to catch Belfast.
“All you can do at this stage with 10 games left is try to win every game and hope you get some help.”
Help this weekend will need to come in the form of Dundee Stars - who visit Belfast on Saturday night - and Guildford Flames, who host Adam Keeffe’s team on Sunday.
The Steelers will hope to have put themselves in a position to make it a four-point weekend when they welcome Glasgow Clan to the Utilita Arena tomorrow.
The Clan’s midweek win in Nottingham was their 10th in 11 games.