Sheffield Steelers lose ground but not all hope in race for Elite League title

But the 6-2 defeat at Cardiff Devils on Wednesday night clearly put a massive dent in those hopes.

Head coach Aaron Fox had little problem with his players’ efforts at the Vindico Arena - the shots on goal count only favoured Cardiff by a handful and two of their goals came in the last two minutes - but he admitted it still wasn’t quite enough at a venue where the Steelers have lost on all five visits this season.

The defeat leaves the Steelers five points adrift of the leaders and now having played a game more.

There are still 24 points on the table for the Steelers and the Giants still have a handful of tough games among the 13 they have left to reclaim a title they won two years ago for a third straight year.

But the odds are slowly increasing against the Steelers claiming their seventh regular season crown in the EIHL era.

“It is a results-based business and we didn’t get the result,” said Fox. “I actually thought we were the better team for the first 50 minutes of that hockey game - 1-1 after the first 2-2 after the second, I thought we deserved better.

“Their guys did the greasy and hard stuff but we had plenty of chances and I thought Mac (Carruth, Cardiff goalie) played really, really well and we didn’t take them (chances) and that is what happens some nights

“From a compete and effort point of view, I didn’t mind our game at all, for the most part but, at the end of the day, it wasn’t enough.”

Having suffered from slow starts in recent weeks, it was the Steelers who broke the deadlock in South Wales when an odd-man rush saw Marc-Olivier Vallerand set up Mitchell Balmas who displayed quick hands to beat Carruth at 12.56.

Cardiff levelled four minutes later when Evan Mosey jammed a rebound home in front of net and took the lead just after the halfway mark when Kohen Olischefski tipped in from Zach O’Brien.

Matt Greenfield then produced a stunning save to stop Cardiff from making it 3-1, allowing the Steelers to break up the other end and pull level through a close-range finish from Mark Simpson at 31.21.

That is how it stayed until the 48th minute, the Devils going ahead for a second time when Joey Martin forced the puck home after an initial save by Greenfield.

The killer blow came when Cole Sanford made it 4-2 six minutes later, the Steelers then forced to chase the game hard and pulling Greenfield from his net with just under three minutes remaining.

A minute later, Martin had a simple tap into the empty net and, just to add insult to injury, Greenfield was beaten again when Cody Donaghey fired through traffic at 58.38.

This weekend, the Steelers host Coventry Blaze on Saturday (7pm) before visiting Dundee Stars on Sunday.

Belfast visit Manchester Storm on Friday and take on Glasgow Clan at the SSE Arena on Sunday.