Sheffield Steelers keep Elite League title hopes alive by narrowing gap on leaders Belfast Giants

Their cause was helped further when the Giants dropped another point in a 2-1 shootout defeat at Glasgow Clan – 24 hours after edging paast bottom club Fife Flyers 4-3.

It means the Steelers now trail the Giants by just two points with six games remaining, although Adam Keefe’s team do have a game in hand.

Nottingham Panthers ensured they remained in the regular season title frame with a 9-3 thumping of Fife at the Motorpoint Arena.

In Sheffield – the second of two home games on the weekend – Colton Saucerman, Mikko Juusola, Patrick Watling and Kevin Tansey found the net in a 4-3 win over Cardiff Devils.

The Devils, long out of the title picture, ensured there were some late nerves when they made it a one-goal game with 14 seconds remaining through Cole Sanford, but the hosts saw out the game to ensure a crucial two points.

“These types of games are always going to be tight at this time of year,” said Steelers’ head coach Fox. “We’ve had some battles with Cardiff this year, they are a good hockey team - they’ve had our number down there and we’ve got the best of them up here.

"I felt our third period was absolutely clinical. We didn’t give up anything, kept them very perimeter and added to our lead. We give up one late with the 6-on-5 situation there, so maybe we would have liked to close out a little better - but it was an outstanding effort from our group.”

The Steelers are next in action on Friday night when they head to Glasgow, while Belfast face an equally tricky trip to Cardiff.

On Saturday, an overtime winner from Veeti Vainio with just nine seconds remaining got the Steelers the two points they needed in a 2-1 victory against Guildford Flames.

The hosts were trailing to a 39th-minute strike from Guildford’s Daniel Catenacci.

Sam Tremblay levelled for the Steelers with just over 10 minutes left and it looked like a shoot-out would be required until Vainio broke clear to latch on to a pinpoint Watling pass before beating goalie Jake Kupsky by firing into his top left-hand corner.