Sheffield Steelers get ahead of Elite League pack after edging out Dundee Stars

He will wake up this morning with his team top of the Elite League standings after a 2-1 win at Dundee Stars made it four wins from five. It followed Saturday’s 4-3 win in overtime at home to Nottingham Panthers in the Challenge Cup.

In Scotland, Steelers ultimately did enough to win the game inside the first 1o minutes, Robert Dowd’s fifth-minute opener being enhanced by a close-range strike from defenceman Adrian Saxrud-Danielsen just over four minutes later.

Thereafter, it was a tight encounter, one made a little more tense when the Stars halved the deficit through Connor Sills at 35.55 but, despite chances at both ends, no further goals came, leaving Fox content on the long coach ride home.

“Any time you come up here and win on the second night of a back-to-back weekend is good,” said Fox. “The guys battled hard for 60 minutes tonight and, defensively, I thought we were pretty good, although credit to Dundee, as I thought they played an excellent game too.”

On Saturday, the Steelers were able to come from 2-0 down to edge out their long-time rivals.

The visitors were two up inside the opening five minutes, Christophe Boivin firing them ahead with just 65 seconds on the clock before Ollie Beteridge doubled the lead at 4.51.

But Tanner Eberle halved the deficit at 10.13 following good work by Davey Phillips and, just before the halfway mark, the hosts were level through Robert Dowd.

It got even better for the home fans just over two minutes later when Marc-Olivier Vallerand poked the puck home to make it 3-2, although that lead disappeared when Boivin struck for his second at 36.17.

That was how it stayed throughout the third, with Eberle’s second of the night the decisive play just under three minutes into overtime.